They were left strictly alone for the rest of the day. The ninja who was shadowing them stayed well back and as unobtrusive as she could manage, and no one else came within sight.

Anko used the time to work with the team on their taijutsu. She had Shino and Hinata henge to burn chakra as they practiced; every forty minutes she called a break and had them sit and meditate to work on concentration and patience while their chakra regenerated; Naruto was restless and fidgety during the meditation periods. When Anko told him to focus, he complained that he didn't need the rest because his chakra was still full, and wouldn't it be smarter for him to keep working on his taijutsu since it was so bad?

Anko's response was short and sweet: "Sit your ass down and meditate. You need patience and concentration even more than you need taijutsu. Focus and patience are the cornerstones to learning anything."

Naruto sat his ass down and meditated with no further complaints.

During the taijutsu training, Anko gave each of them a different style to learn. Naruto's was a hard style—simple, linear, oriented around powerful punches and kicks, with defense consisting solely of opposition; it was the perfect thing for someone with a lot of strength who needed to learn in a hurry. Hinata got a mixed soft/hard style—balance disruption, throws, joint locks leading to bone breaks, and a defense based on evasion and redirection; it played well with the Gentle Fist's focus on pressure points and chakra strikes. Shino's style was hard/soft—disabling strikes and grappling with the intent to immobilize an opponent so his insects could finish them. Defense was based on a mix of opposition, interrupting attacks, and stesso-tempo parry/ripostes.

They worked hard until dusk and then Anko had them break for dinner. All three genin were tired but satisfied; each of them could see that they had made progress. Conversation was quiet as they walked back to their assigned cottage.

Orochimaru was waiting on the front steps, leaning on the wall by the door with his hands stuffed casually in his pockets. Shino immediately started brainstorming ways to defeat the older man if it became necessary. He'd been doing it the entire time they were traveling yesterday and off and on during training today, but none of the options he'd come up with seemed to have much chance of success.

"What can we do for you, sensei?" Anko asked guardedly.

"I was hoping I could borrow Shino-san for a few minutes," Orochimaru said calmly. "We're having a problem with bed bugs in one of the dormitories, and an Aburame's skill would be the easiest way to deal with the problem before it spreads."

"Where is it?" Anko asked. "We'll all go."

Orochimaru waved casually. "That's not necessary. It's getting late and you still need to make dinner, so why don't the three of you stay here? We won't be long." It sounded like a suggestion but very clearly wasn't.

Anko glanced at Shino and shrugged. "I think you need to go, kid," she told him unhappily.

Shino nodded. "I'm sure it won't be a problem, sensei," he said. She grimaced but didn't try to stop him as he looked at Orochimaru and gestured for him to lead the way.

Orochimaru hopped off the porch and set off into the center of town with a lilt in his step, whistling a tune as he went. Shino followed quietly beside him.

"Is this the part where you try to bribe me to defect?" Shino asked casually.

Orochimaru laughed. "Have you figured out how to kill me yet?" he replied, ignoring the boy's question.

"I have not," Shino said. "I have conceived and rejected multiple plans, but none of them seemed likely to succeed."

Orochimaru nodded, lips pursed thoughtfully. "You'd need to have a surprise prepared," he said. "Your entire team couldn't defeat me in a straight fight, either with taijutsu or ninjutsu and, aside from my little bird, none of you have any training in genjutsu. I, on the other hand, have quite a lot of genjutsu skill, so you would need to be careful not to meet my eyes.

"One option would be to have your allies deploy explosive tags," he said. "You'd want to keep them at ground level, where they were less likely to be seen than if they were up in the air. It would also be wise to have my little bird summon some fog so that your allies could move around without being seen. Not smoke; smoke would choke them. I wouldn't suggest having them simply land on me and try to drain my chakra; I have enough concentration that I could kawarimi and leave them behind."

"Assuming we could choose the battlefield, we could arrange for there to be no valid targets for kawarimi," Shino suggested.

Orochimaru nodded. "You could, except the first thing I generally do in a fight is to throw out multiple clones. They provide additional axes of attack, distract and isolate opponents and, most importantly, their chakra is mine so I can kawarimi with them."

"That would be awkward for us," Shino admitted.

"If you could manage to get a substantial number of your allies into my mouth you could both choke me and anchor me in place," Orochimaru offered. "So long as they were physically inside me their chakra would prevent me from using kawarimi. Unfortunately, if you tried I would use a Katon: Grand Fireball to burn them away."

"Not if you couldn't speak," Shino pointed out.

"I can do the technique without handseals or spoken words," Orochimaru said. "Even if your bugs were choking me and draining my chakra from the inside they couldn't drop me fast enough." He stopped in front of a three-story building neatly painted a soft blue.

"Hmm," Shino said, thinking about Orochimaru's comment on the Katon technique. After a pause he asked, "So, why are we actually here?"

"There really are bed bugs," Orochimaru said. "But I did want to talk to you for a few minutes. If you would deal with the bugs first, it would be most appreciated. It's the first room on the left, second floor, but they might have spread."

Shino turned and walked into the building and up the stairs. Along the way he sent a swarm of his kikai bugs flooding out into the rest of the house to scout for other infestations. In the specified dormitory he laid his hand on the floor and sent a chakra pulse floating out on the back of the words, "Secret Technique: Insect Gathering."

Over the next minute a horde of tiny creatures crawled from their hiding places in the beds, the mattresses, and the baseboards and came to his hand. They traveled no faster than normal but they moved directly to him without concern for staying out of sight.

Once all the bedbugs had crawled up onto his hand and arm Shino recalled his kikai bugs and digested what they had found.

"There are no other bed bugs," he said. "We caught the infestation early."

"Excellent," Orochimaru said. "Let's go upstairs for a few minutes and then you can rejoin your friends and tell them all about my attempts to bribe you into defecting."

Shino smiled behind his collar but followed the older ninja up the stairs to the roof.

Orochimaru walked to the edge of the roof and sat down crosslegged, seemingly unconcerned at having his unprotected back to his 'guest.' Shino eyed him consideringly for a moment, then sat down next to him.

"What do you see, Shino?" Orochimaru said softly, gesturing widely at the town around them.

Shino eyebrow went up at the familiarity, but he said nothing. Instead, he considered the question carefully while studying the panorama before him.

"The village of Sound is smaller than Konoha or most of the other hidden villages," he began. "Most of your buildings are not more than three stories, implying that you have sufficient space to spread out instead of up...or else that you lack anyone with the architectural skills to build high, although that seems unlikely." He studied the scene for another moment, then frowned. "There are gaslights on every street I can see," he said in amazement. "How could you possibly have afforded that?"

"Never mind the gaslights," Orochimaru said. "What else do you see? Come, Aburame, show me those deductive skills your clan prizes so highly."

Shino looked again. "This area appears to be almost exclusively civilian," he said. "I see no evidence of ninja activity—no loose roof tiles from ninja traveling high, no seal traps on windows, no footprints on the walls from ninja wallwalking. The houses are well maintained, but they're all row houses and all exactly the same aside from paint—clearly designed to be built quickly and cheaply. The gaslights suggest a degree of affluence for the town but the nature of the houses suggests this is a poorer neighborhood. It also suggests a population problem leading to crowding. That implies that you are gaining people faster than you can build new housing for them."

Orochimaru pointed at a green house on the next block. "The Yukimuras live there," he said. "Husband, wife, five children ages six to ten; they had two brothers and three sisters, all of whom died in infancy. The Yukimuras were farmers before they escaped from their lord and came here. They worked seven days a week, twelve to fourteen hours a day. Mr. Yukimura had a congenital cleft lip and Mrs. Yukimura was developing bad arthritis when they arrived. One of our medic-nin cured the cleft lip in eight minutes, and we've been keeping the symptoms of the arthritis at bay for two years so Mrs. Yukimura can live a pain-free life."

Shino nodded silently, not sure what to say to this or why it was relevant.

"That dormitory there?" said the Kage of Sound, pointing to a building diagonally across the street. "Like this one, that's a home for transients, new arrivals, and those who have recently become homeless for whatever reason. Takahashi Ikumi lives in the third floor room, second window from the right; she's from the Land of Earth. When she was three, her mother offended a noblewoman who sent samurai to kill both her and her husband. Ikumi grew up on the streets, she can't read or write, and she was working as a streetwalker because it was the only job she could get. She's twelve. She got here three months ago; she's been assigned to a foster family, receiving psychological counseling, and she's going to school. It looks like she's going to be an excellent painter when she grows up."

"I see," Shino said.

"Her arrival was...interesting," Orochimaru said. "I had a diplomatic group in Iwagakure; she was being chased by a street patrol with weapons drawn, and she literally ran into my ninja as she came out of an alley. They saw her bruises and told the street patrol to stand down or die." He snorted. "It didn't help diplomatic relations. In truth, it was a mistake for them to rescue her, but once it was done I did everything I could for her."

He studied the building sadly. "The real problem was that she was suffering from extreme trauma but wouldn't tell us what had happened to her. We knew perfectly well; the signs were obvious. Unfortunately, until she was willing to face up to it there was very little we could do, and her nightmares and bad behavior got worse as time went on." He shrugged. "Eventually one of our therapists managed to create enough of a bond that she opened up. She's gotten much better since then."

"It was the wrong thing to do to rescue a little girl?" Shino asked quietly.

Orochimaru turned to face him for the first time. He didn't say anything, just studied the young genin.

"I am a psychopath," he eventually said, his voice as calm as though he were discussing the weather. "I don't have a conscience and so nothing really bothers me. Personally, I consider this an advantage. I have a moral code that I've chosen for myself because I feel it will improve my life and, not incidentally, the rest of the world. Despite that, every day before breakfast I do three things that the average person from Konoha would regard as monstrous. So, yes, the life and happiness of one little girl was not a good trade for causing a major diplomatic incident that could easily have sparked a war."

He turned to look thoughtfully at the city again. "And yet...right or wrong, this city is mine, and I have ensured that every person within it has a better life than they had before coming here. When I lived in Konoha my existence was about nothing but death—even after the war, all my efforts were focused on military matters, on protecting the ninja of the Leaf from the next attack, making them stronger so they could survive their next mission.

"It took being chased out of the village by the Hokage for me to realize that I'd had the problem the wrong way around," he said softly, still not looking at Shino. "'How do I prevent my friends from dying in battle?' is the wrong question. I think I have finally found the right question, and at least part of an answer to it."

Shino waited for him to go on, but he didn't. After a moment he asked, "The right question being 'how do I prevent people from getting into situations that will kill them'?"

Orochimaru chuckled and pushed himself to his feet, offering Shino a hand up. "Almost. I will leave you to deduce the correct question and its answer on your own, young Aburame," he said. "Come, we should get you back to your friends before my little bird starts tearing the city down looking for you."

o-o-o-o

"Also, I note that he was very quick to distract me from the gas lights," Shino said after he'd finished relating the story over dinner. "The area we were in was purely civilian and, from what he said, it wasn't a wealthy part of the city. Gas lights on every street bespeaks a truly remarkable level of wealth. Given the comparatively small size of the village, I would be very interested to know the source of that wealth. Also, I would like to know why there are gas lights in a poor section of town, but not in the more affluent areas that we walked through earlier."

"What I find impressive," Anko said, "is how much the place has grown. When I first came here, this place was a pure ninja village...I don't know, maybe four thousand ninja and a few hundred civilians? When I left there were probably about five thousand civilians, but based on what we saw earlier I'm guessing it's up to at least thirty."

Shino pursed his lips. "You left only three years ago, correct? Then the question becomes, what changed that caused the sudden growth? Did they start receiving more immigrants, or did they explicitly go recruiting? In either case, why? And how did they know they could absorb the influx? I would think that most villages would turn away such a large number of immigrants for fear that the infrastructure couldn't support them without disrupting village life. What made Orochimaru-sama take the chance?"

"The part that interests me is the bait that he's putting out," Naruto said. "He shows me techniques, he tells Hinata she can safely defect if she wants to, and he shows Shino an important puzzle. What does that say about how he thinks of us?"

Shino looked at his usually thoughtless teammate in surprise. It was a good question, and it touched on an area that had been bothering him: Hinata had related her entire conversation with Orochimaru to Anko, but had given the other genin only an edited version. Still, she'd been open about the fact that he had offered her a chance to defect, and it wasn't hard to put the clues together.

"It says that he's aware your training has been neglected, that you have been poorly treated by Konoha, and that you are likely to respond well to respect and training," Shino said. "He believes that I live a life of the mind such that I cannot leave here without knowing the answer to his riddle...which might be true, given how important he implied the question was." He turned to face his third teammate, studying her carefully. "Finally, he knows that Hinata-chan's family is abusing her."

Hinata's face went as white as her eyes. "That's not true!" she gasped. "Shino-san, why would you say such a thing?! My family love me!"

Shino stared at her calmly. "You had bruises that inspired Anko-sensei's rage. You told us that the last thing Orochimaru-sama said to you was that he hated child abusers. Your body language has been more open and relaxed since we left Konoha. His offer was to give you a way to defect. I know perfectly well that Naruto-san deduced this when we made camp that first night; at the time I didn't understand what was passing between you, but it became obvious later." He glanced over at the blond genin. "Which is interesting in its own right. It implies that you have some experience with abuse yourself—most likely being abused, but conceivably of watching it happen to someone else." He cocked his head. "Hm, no. Most likely it was yourself. When you discussed your foster family you refused to meet our eyes and said 'it was okay, I guess.' You were concealing something, and I ascribe a high probability that it was a history of abuse."

Naruto glared at Shino, mouth tight, fists balled up, and breath coming faster as rage boiled up inside him. "You think you're so smart, don't you, Shino?" he snarled. "You don't know a damn thing about me, or about Hinata-chan! Where do you get off—"

"Aaaaand, we're breathing," Anko said, raising her hands to interrupt Naruto's tirade. "We are inhaling calm and exhaling all that distracts us, all the anger and fear and unrest. We will breathe and find our center."

She waited until Naruto no longer looked like he was about to swing on his teammate, then turned to Shino. "Shino, part of the Communications Officer's duties is to ensure the team is realistically assessing all available data. Ten points for fulfilling that duty, minus a million points for tact. Another part of your duty is to keep the team functioning smoothly and you just took a steaming dump on that one."

Shino gave Hinata a small bow. "I apologize for offending you. Everyone in the group knew the secret, yet all of us were pretending we didn't. I felt it would be better to bring the issue into the open."

Hinata glared at him, so angry she couldn't speak. After several long seconds she stood and walked out of the cottage.

Anko sighed. "Naruto, go after her. I'll stay here with Mr. Foot-in-Mouth and we'll have a little talk about appropriate management of personal information." She gave Shino a look that promised ruinous pain. "A very specific talk," she said grimly.

Naruto scrambled to his feet and ran out.

o-o-o-o

Hinata stalked down the road, killing intent boiling off her like heat off a bonfire. A few civilians were passing through the streets, mostly workers on their way home; when they felt her coming they ran, fleeing in panic at the sense of an angry ninja.

Her Byakugan was active, the edges of her range pulsing slightly in and out as rage and self-loathing rendered her chakra flow chaotic. She saw Naruto coming before he came around the corner and into sight. Not wanting to deal with him or anyone else, she leaped for the rooftops, pushing her chakra down so hard that she overshot her target and scrabbled for a grip on the roof tiles until she managed to lock her hands down with the treewalking technique and catch her balance.

Naruto heard the noise and jumped for the roofs himself, calling out for her.

Hinata flung herself away from him, bouncing from one roof to another. At each landing she locked her feet down for balance then immediately launched to the next roof.

Naruto was following her; his massive chakra reserves meant he could jump much farther than she could, so he was closing fast. Hinata hit every slanted roof she could find, avoiding the flat ones; he had the range but he couldn't treewalk to keep himself stable, and the need to catch his balance on every landing would slow him down.

He was only two roofs behind her, still yelling for her to stop. He frequently missed his landing but, instead of scrabbling for balance as she'd expected, he latched on with the treewalking exercise. He still didn't have the control to do it cleanly, so he inevitably crushed a giant hole in whatever roof he was standing on, but it was keeping him on his feet and able to follow.

Her Byakugan showed her two Sound ninja closing fast from her two o'clock and another from her nine while Naruto-kun came up from her five. With a snarl she slid to the edge of the roof she was standing on to break line of sight to all four of them, then bounced to the wall of the building across the street and back, dropping a little distance each time and treewalking to give herself the momentary solidity necessary for the next jump. She landed in a clean three-point stance and took off running.

The Sound ninja hadn't actually seen her; they were almost certainly responding to reports of an angry ninja terrorizing civilians. With Naruto-kun raising a racket they would fixate on him and it would keep all four of them out of her hair while Naruto-kun explained himself.

She could feel the tears starting; a normal person would have been blinded, but she could keep moving smoothly because of her kami-damned Byakugan. Her oh-so-impressive bloodline power, the only thing that made her valuable to the team, something she'd just been born with, nothing she'd earned. And she'd certainly never earned anything from the family that had given her this horrible power of sight that she didn't want and why couldn't she have been born to some other family?! A farmer—no, not a farmer, she was too weak to be useful on a farm. Perhaps a scribe; she had excellent penmanship.

She choked on a sob; that was her big achievement? Good penmanship? No wonder her father was so disappointed! No wonder he needed to give her such intense training—it was the only way she could possibly achieve anything. Look at how easily Naruto-kun had overtaken her—she couldn't even run away well!

The sobs were coming faster and louder now; she put her head down and ran, sheathing her legs in chakra and pushing hard, racing down the streets of Sound so fast she was barely touching the ground.

From behind her came the unmistakeable sound of an explosive tag detonating.

Before she knew what she was doing she'd dropped one hand to the ground and latched on, giving herself a pivot to turn her momentum around so she was flying back the way she'd come.

She wasn't close enough to see what was happening, but she could hear the sounds of the battle ahead. The distinctive sound of holes being blown in roof after roof said that Naruto was dodging furiously, still moving in the direction he'd last seen her going. She heard unfamiliar voices calling techniques as the Sound ninja attempted to stop him; the techniques were rapidly shifting from capture techniques to lethal ones as Naruto refused to stop in response to their demands.

The battle was moving towards her and now they were within the range of her Byakugan. Naruto had flubbed his last bounce; he'd landed off balance and had to windmill his arms to catch himself before launching again. Before he could, two of the Sound ninja were bracketing him, closing from both sides with weapons drawn.

Her Byakugan showed her everything; the exact position of Naruto's center and the speed with which he was bringing himself back to balance—not fast enough. The exact angle each ninja was closing from—perfect to catch Naruto between them or to intercept any jump he could make. The flick of their eyes as they chose their targets—throat and heart respectively. The twitch of the muscles in their hands as they readied their weapons for a pair of strikes that woud snuff out the smile that melted her heart, the determination that she had attempted to model herself on, the courage that made him put himself between his team and the most dangerous ninja on earth.

Those strikes were not going to land.

Hinata's reserves were getting low but she ignored that as she rammed chakra through her feet, sending herself into the air like a hawk on the wing, falling on a smoothly calculated curve that brought her down directly on the back of the westernmost ninja. At the apex of the arc she hurled three shuriken at the easternmost one, forcing him to abort his charge in favor of dodging.

The closer ninja saw the attack on his partner and began to throw himself aside from the threat he knew must be coming at his back; he wasn't fast enough. He would have avoided a kick or a kunai, but he hadn't moved quite far enough to be out of Hinata's reach, and a Gentle Fist user didn't need power behind her blows.

Her fingers brushed across the back of his neck, sealing three tenketsu points as she passed; he dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, sliding off the roof and hitting the ground with a wet thud.

The other ninja saw what she'd done and dove forward, tumbling past Naruto and back to his feet, kunai upraised to meet Hinata as she landed. Her breath caught; she was just touching down, still not on balance, her arms out of position to block and unable to dodge. He was coming in like the trump of doom, his kunai already thrusting up to gut her and there was nothing she could do—

Naruto stretched out his hand and treewalked on the man's head from three feet away.

The Sound ninja's skull instantly converted to a pulpy mass that splattered over Naruto and everything within twenty feet behind him. The decapitated body was catapulted into the blond genin, knocking him over and sending him and the body down the roof in an out-of-control tumble.

Hinata ripped the coil of ninja wire off her belt and hurled the end at Naruto with all her strength, latching her feet to the roof as the wire spun out, the weight on the end flying unerringly to the man she loved, already pushing chakra into it in order to curl it around him, setting her weight so she could stop his plunge. Why was he falling? He should be able to catch himself, even if he tore a hole in the roof doing it.

Naruto and the headless body went over the roof just before the wire reached them.

"NO!" Hinata screamed, flinging herself down the roof, barely paying attention to the three Sound ninja that were leaping towards her from adjacent roofs, hands flicking through handseals she didn't recognize but that didn't matter because Naruto was either dying or dead and she needed to get to him!

"Katon: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!" / "Doton: Earth Style Wall!" / "Fuuton: Containment Whirlwind!"

Three streams of dragonfire sprang from the hands and mouth of one ninja, curling around both sides and above her to block escape in three directions. At the same time a giant earthen rampart tore its way out of the roof directly in front of her, blocking off her only remaining escape route. A hurricane blast of wind came in from the side, fanning the flames of the Fire Dragon into an inferno that turned and leaped at her—

"DOTON: EARTH DOME!" Orochimaru bellowed, his voice so loud that it was clearly audible even though he wasn't in her range of sight. The rampart that blocked her way forward curled over into a protective hemisphere; Hinata's Byakugan showed her the Fire Dragon splashing off the dome and the wind vortex fading away now that there was no target for it.

Orochimaru came into her sight in mid-leap and landed lightly atop the dome. He waved off the three Sound-ninja who had been seconds from incinerating Hinata.

"Stand down," Orochimaru said calmly. "I want this sorted out with no more violence."

"But Chuikage...!" protested the fire user.

Orochimaru flicked a hand towards the complaining ninja; a small green snake flew from his sleeve faster than any kunai and bit the man on the face before vanishing in a puff of smoke. He stiffened with a strangled gasp and twitched; froth poured from his mouth as he began thrashing uncontrollably. The others watched in appalled silence as the man melted from the inside out.

"Stand down," Orochimaru said calmly. "I want this sorted out with no more violence."

The remaining two ninja couldn't move fast enough as they backed away, hands raised placatingly. Orochimaru watched them dispassionately for a moment, then hopped off the earth dome and snapped his fingers to dissolve it.

"Now, young princess, I believe we need to have a conversation," Orochimaru said with unconvincing casualness. "Is there anything you need to tell me?"

"Please...Naruto-kun fell off the roof," she said. "I think he was unconscious, and he probably didn't land well...please, you need to help him."

For the first time since she'd met him, Orochimaru looked actually alarmed. He turned to the two ninja standing off to the side and barked, "Fumio, get to Sound General and tell them to prep for a high priority patient with major physical trauma. Junji, get to Dr. Hashimoto's house; if he's not at the hospital get him there soonest. MOVE!" Both ninja vanished in a swirl of dust.

Before the dust settled, Orochimaru had leaped off the roof to where he could see the street below, then kawarimied with the headless corpse of his ninja to end up kneeling at Naruto's side. Hinata followed him down, leaping off the roof and slowing herself by latching her hand weakly to the wall, not enough to hold her in place but enough to slow her fall. By the time she touched down she'd sanded most of the skin off her palm, but she barely noticed as she ran to join Orochimaru.

Naruto was unconscious and his body was badly damaged; all four limbs were broken in multiple places and there was a wet sucking sound every time he inhaled. Fortunately, his head had been cushioned by the dead body of his victim or he would have shattered his skull on the paving stones.

"Damnit," Orochimaru growled under his breath. "How in the hell...? Hinata-san, Naruto-san has massive chakra exhaustion, so low he's not even regenerating. Even if the physical injuries don't kill him in the next few minutes, the chakra exhaustion will unless he gets a transfer. Can you see Shino-san or Anko?"

Hinata shook her head. "They aren't in range of my Byakugan."

Orochimaru cursed. "I can do the transfer, but it's risky when he's this low. Shino-sans's kikai bugs are one of the few safe ways for a non-medic-nin to do a chakra transfer." He hesitated for a moment, looking in the direction of the guest house and then in the opposite direction towards the hospital.

"Damnit," he growled again. He picked Naruto up carefully and shunshined, leaving Hinata no idea of where he'd gone.

With nothing else to do she turned back towards the team's assigned quarters and set off as fast as she could go, bouncing from roof to roof and throwing out kawarimis like they were free every time she saw a valid target.

o-o-o-o

By the time she got back, Hinata was so low on chakra she was about to retch. Despite that she came through the door fast, still riding a wave of fear, anger, and adrenaline. Shino was sitting on the floor, trembling. Anko was sprawled on one of the couches, a kunai dancing back and forth between her fingers as she scowled at the wall. Naruto wasn't in the room but there was a large bloodstain in the middle of the carpet and she could smell the coppery tang of blood in the air.

"Where is Naruto-kun?" Hinata demanded.

"Orochimaru brought him in," Anko replied, not a trace of the usual liveliness in her tone. "Shino gave him a transfer of most of my chakra and his own, plus a lot of Orochimaru's. Orochimaru then took him to the hospital. We're still sitting here instead of going with him because my options were to take the walking disaster here"—she waved dismissively at Shino—"into an area with lots of fired up Sound ninja, or to leave him here unsupervised. And thus, we are here while Naruto is in the hospital being cared for by the most dangerous man I know. A man who wants something from us and is, oh yes, a complete psychopath."

"Hinata-chan, I'm so sorry—" Shino began miserably; she raised a hand to cut him off.

"I can't deal with you right now," Hinata said. "When I've calmed down we'll talk. Until then, stay quiet and out of the way unless you have something useful to offer."

Anko raised an eyebrow to hear her pupil sounding so assertive, but made no comment.

"Sensei, may I have permission to go to the hospital?" Hinata asked. "I would like to be there when Naruto wakes up."

Anko shook her head. "I'm really sorry, kid, but no. You need to stay here. Orochimaru only gave us a thumbnail sketch, but apparently you and Naruto killed two Sound ninja in the performance of their duties. Worse, three of their confederates apparently saw it go down because they went lethal without even calling for you to surrender. By now the word will be all over town about what happened; if you go anywhere without an escort it's almost certain that you're going to accidentally stab yourself in the back of the head five or six times."

Anko grimaced. "Of course, that assumes that we haven't just declared war between Fire and Sound, in which case they'll be sending an assault force through the wall in about five minutes."

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