Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Butterfly ❯ Confusion and Unconscious ( Chapter 7 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. No copyright infringement intended so please don't sue me.

A/N: Woohoo! This is officially the longest fic I've ever written on my own (I was a member of a collective of writers and we wrote about two full 400 page books together…) I hope you like it! A huge hug and cookie go out to Fly again for bouncing ideas around with me and helping me decide what to do about one of the characters (guess which one ^^). Thank you to everyone who's reviewed chapters 5 and 6, especially 6. It turned out exactly the way I'd wanted it too and am very proud of it.

~~~

The Butterfly: Chapter 7

By: Tea Leaf/ Banana Soap

~~~

Shikamaru's eyes followed Ino's form as she paced across the room. She was wringing her hands.

She was breaking his concentration.

Asuma grinned as he moved his rook to capture Shikamaru's bishop.

"HA! Take that genius!" he exclaimed in his gruff voice as cigarette smoke curled around his head.

Shikamaru glared at the chess game. In seven years he has never lost to Asuma and he wasn't about to start now. Damn Ino and her pacing!

He moved his pawn and captured Asuma's rook.

"Ah! Damn it! I didn't see that one" Asuma grumbled.

Shikamaru's eyes snapped to Ino, now she was biting her thumbnail.

"Check!" Asuma said, more shock than glee coloring his tone. He'd never gotten Shikamaru into check before.

Shikamaru looked down at the chessboard then back up at Ino. Chessboard…Ino…chessboard…Ino…

"Man, what a pain." He muttered as he knocked over his king.

"Sorry old man, I'm just not into the game today." He muttered in a self-deprecating tone.

Asuma looked over his shoulder at Ino as she paced restlessly one hand fiddling with her long hair the other getting its thumbnail chewed off and smirked.

"I see. Same time next week?" He asked.

"Aa." Shikamaru responded as Asuma stood up and left

{Bastard's probably going to go gloat to Kurenai about beating me…man…this is so annoying} he thought with a sigh as he cleared away the chess game.

Ino hadn't even noticed Asuma had left; she was too caught up in her own thoughts.

Shikamaru leaned back on his hands, still sitting on the floor and looked up at her.

"Ino." He said evenly.

She seemed to snap out of her daze and stopped pacing but her right hand remained tangled in her ponytail and her thumbnail remained between her teeth.

She looked at him questioningly.

"What's wrong?" he asked directly.

"Heh? Nothing's wrong." She said around the thumbnail she was still nibbling on.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"Oh no, you just always pace and fiddle with your hair and chew on your those nails you spend hours filling and "perfecting"." He responded sarcastically.

Ino looked away.

"In case you're wondering why Asuma's gone its because he won already." Shikamaru continued, as he looked away, an annoyed expression on his face.

Ino looked back at him as her hand dropped from her mouth and she smiled. He was worried about her.

She walked over to him and dropped down on the floor beside him, leaning on his shoulder as he slipped a hand around her waist.

"I…I heard something bad." The blonde began.

"What happened?" Shikamaru prodded.

"Its…its just a rumor I think…I hope…Its about Sakura…" she continued as she snuggled a little closer to him. He wrapped his other arm around her too.

"What was the rumor?" he questioned.

To his surprise, tears started to swim in her aqua eyes.

"The rumor is that…she…she killed." she sniffled. "She killed a whole tribe of people." She finished a little brokenly.

Shikamaru's eyes widened slightly. People thought Sakura was a murderer?

"Apparently everyone's skin had been melted off, like what had happened to Orochimaru when Sakura used that poison on him…" she continued quietly.

Shikamaru was shocked; he didn't want to believe that Sakura could ever do such a thing…

"But I know Sakura would never do that but…now Sasuke's disappeared suddenly on some mission and Gaara's in the village looking after some strange little girl that people are saying is a survivor of the attack…and…and I was in Tsunade-sama's office yesterday and…she had one of those butterflies on her desk…" Ino continued as her tears started to overflow.

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed.

"Tsunade-sama had one of the butterflies?" he asked.

Ino nodded against his neck as she pulled herself even closer to him, his arms tightened automatically.

"Those butterflies are the carriers of the poison, right?" he questioned more.

She nodded again. "I think so…why?"

"We've seen those butterflies act without Sakura's order. They don't have the typical summoning bond with her as most animals have with most shinobi." He said.

"Why does that matter?" Ino asked, starting to compose herself.

"It matters because the butterflies could have acted without Sakura's order. Meaning Sakura wouldn't have been the one that killed those people." Shikamaru continued.

Ino sat up suddenly and hit her head on Shikamaru's chin.

"Itai…" they both muttered as they nursed their sore spots.

"We have to go see Tsunade-sama!" Ino said energetically once she had recovered.

Shikamaru sighed {this is going to become troublesome, I can feel it…} he thought before standing and helping Ino to her feet as well.

The pair took off for the Hokage tower.

~~~

He stood in the middle of the field. It was a barren clearing in the woods, a weeks direct travel due west from the village. The remnants of a camp were scattered around the hard packed earth. Scorch marks were easily spotted on the ground where bodies had once lain.

There was blood too but only in one spot.

There was a huge red-ish black stain coating a rather sharp rock that protruded from the uneven ground and a large puddle had discolored the area surrounding it. There were also other such discolored blood soaked patches of earth nearby. A body could easily be pictured among the stains.

He examined the rock more closely and there, stuck in the dried blood were three stands of broken pink hair.

Sakura had lain here and she had been badly injured.

He looked around some more and at about six paces from the blood there was another discolored patch near a scorch mark. Vomit.

He looked around the camp again at all the scorch marks. His eyes narrowed behind his ANBU mask.

~~~

Tsunade remained impassive as Ino tried to bully information about Sakura out of her.

"This case is classified." She stated simply.

Ino growled in frustration and looked like she would have leapt over the desk and attempted to beat the information out of the 5th Hokage had Shikamaru not grabbed onto her arm and held her back.

"We realize the information is classified Hokage-sama. But we've heard rumors. And from what little we've been able to gather, we think we can help. We don't believe Sakura killed those people." He said calmly.

"I understand that you don't want to think that Sakura could possibly be a murderer. You've known her for a very long time and were good friends with her. But face facts. Sakura was a highly unstable person; anything could have set her off and pushed her to homicidal or suicidal acts. For all we know, murdering a tribe in our land could be a form a passive suicide seeing as she would have knew we'd send ANBU out to eliminate her." Tsunade replied angrily.

Shikamaru's eyes narrowed slightly as he smirked.

"So a tribe was murdered and Sakura really is believed to be behind it and ANBU has been sent after her." He stated smugly.

Tsunade glared furiously.

{Damn Shikamaru and his strategies anyway!}

She growled then in frustration.

"FINE! Close the damn door and sit down, I'll give you the details." She consented reluctantly.

Shikamaru calmly closed the door securely as requested as Ino sat down and then joined the blonde in front of the desk.

~~~

The girl's eyes opened wide, passing from near comatose sleep to wide awake without even a blink.

Gaara was still sitting there holding her hand and watching her.

She turned to look at him. He simply looked back.

The silence stretched.

"Who are you?" she asked finally, in a very quiet and small voice.

"I'm Gaara." He responded in an equally low voice.

She nodded and looked at him for another moment before turning to look at the ceiling again.

~~~

He walked out of the hospital and back to the inn room he was using as a base as he gathered the background information about a crime.

A week ago they had found a girl matching Sakura's description unconscious in the woods. She'd been severely injured with a bad head wound, concussion, broken rib, broken leg and more cuts and bruises than the staff had been able to count. She'd been in the hospital for two days and then had mysteriously disappeared, leaving only some money on the bed.

The wounds had been treated crudely but sufficiently when they found her. Her broken bones had already been set.

He collapsed on a chair in the small motel room; on the table was a spider web like drawing connecting all the information and possibilities of the crime. He grabbed a pencil and crossed out the option labeled "Mental Breakdown" as well as "Passive Suicide Attempt" and circled "Injured Self Defense?" and proceeded to make a detailed list of her recorded injuries. He then wrote down "Unconscious?" in a clear spot and made a broken line to it from "Injured".

"Damn it Sakura…what the hell happened?" he muttered out loud as he stared at the web.

His eyes then shifted to the "Vomit" bubble. Why had she been sick? Was it a result of the injuries? Was it seeing the bodies? If it was seeing the body, does that mean she was surprised to see them? Had it been something else they'd done to her?

He growled in frustration. The more he hunted, the more questions he had.

The more questions he answered though, the more he was sure she was innocent of the crime.

~~~

Ino's face had drained of its color and her fingers were pressed to her lips.

{Oh Sakura…What a horrible crime…}

Shikamaru looked pensive.

"I don't think she did it. Even in her broken state she simply is not able to commit such an act. It takes more than mental stability to become a murderer, it takes a will to kill and she does not have that." He said finally.

Tsunade rolled her eyes, kids were so naïve.

"Then what do you think happened?" she asked sarcastically.

"I think those butterflies acted on their own. Probably to protect her, but still without her consent." He responded.

"Are you trying to claim that these insects" here she tossed the bag with the butterfly onto her desk "think for themselves?" she asked skeptically.

"Well, the bugs the Aburame clan uses do. Why would these butterflies be any different?" he asked as he raised an eyebrow.

Tsunade frowned, she hadn't thought of that.

{Damn kid's always one step ahead of me, it really pisses me off…} she thought it annoyance.

But then a brilliant thought occurred to her.

"That is a good point Shikamaru. One I would like you to investigate on our behalf." She said with a sweet smile.

Shikamaru froze. "What?"

"I want you to figure out the nature of these bugs and make a full report to me. We currently have ANBU hunting her down, we wouldn't want to kill her if there could be a reasonable amount of doubt for her innocence." Tsunade responded.

"I want to help too!" Ino picked up, if she could help save her friend, she'd do anything.

Tsunade considered.

"Alright, Yamanaka, Nara, this is your mission: discover the nature of these butterflies and create a case that would expose a reasonable doubt in Haruno Sakura's favor." She said officially as she crossed her hands on her desk.

Ino nodded, Shikamaru groaned {what a pain…} and the pair stood up to leave.

"Oh before you go, do remember to be careful. These butterflies are highly poisonous, if they touch your skin it will essentially melt away and the poison spreads incredibly fast, so all your skin would melt away and you would…well, die." She said cheerfully.

The color drained from Ino and Shikamaru's face.

{Now what have I gotten myself into? …} Shikamaru wondered and the pair gulped and left.

~~~

It was raining. She was limping. She kept slipping.

{Damn broken bones…}

She was pretty sure that she must be approaching the cloud country, the sky was always overcast and the rain simply kept pouring.

She didn't mind the rain though. It kept the butterflies away and she half hoped she could lose them.

The days had been spent walking until she lost consciousness either to pain, hunger or exhaustion and then walking when consciousness was regained.

She didn't stop to rest. Every now and then, when the growling in her stomach was too painful, she'd lift her head and drink the rainwater. Maybe that was the reason she'd survived a week without food.

It wasn't that she didn't have food or have money for food it was quite simply that she didn't want to eat. It made her feel sick.

She wasn't really sure how long she'd been walking, bouts of unconsciousness and the return of her narcolepsy made it difficult to keep track of time.

The dark smudges under her eyes were back, only now the sickly bruises that still covered her skin complimented them. Her discolored flesh combined with her now skeletal appearance probably made anyone that saw her think that she had some hellish disease and kept them away. That was good. She did have a disease. It was poison.

Black spots swam before her eyes. She ignored them. She was glad for them. The pain and the constant battle for consciousness as well as the rumblings ripping at her stomach gave her something to focus on.

They prevented her thoughts, prevented the nightmare from resurging behind her eyes. It was an old nightmare, one she'd had since the fight with Orochimaru. It was worse now though, there were more people in it now. And there was no one else here to drive the nightmare away.

The black spots continued to get worse and her brain seemed to turn to cotton again.

"Damn" was all she managed to mutter before collapsing into the mud.

~~~

Again she heard the beep. That damn beep that always shattered the sounds in her mind. She didn't want to wake up; she never wanted to wake up again. It was so nice to be dead.

She wasn't alone when she was dead.

Kakashi was there when she was dead.

"Ah, she's coming around." A distorted voice said.

Her eyes forced themselves open against her will. Apparently her body wanted to be awake even if her mind didn't. Her body wanted to keep moving as far away from here as possible.

"Good afternoon miss." Said a cheerful doctor. She didn't respond.

"You're lucky one of the nurses spotted you on their way over. You have some bad infections in some of these cuts and your stitches need to removed." The doctor was saying in a lighthearted fashion.

She remained mute.

"You're from out of town, correct?" he asked.

She looked at him and nodded briefly.

"Where am I?" she asked in a low voice.

"You're in the Sunshine Hospital in the Cloud Country, near the southern border." He responded cheerily as he grabbed a large binder from a shelf.

{I figured as much…}

"Seeing as you're from out of town, would you mind taking a look at this?" he asked as he handed her the binder.

"What it is?" she asked suspiciously.

"Its essentially a list of all the John and Jane Does in the hospitals around the country. Our hospitals are all connected and government run. Our country is a really good hiding place for a lot of people so we often come across random injured people. If they're unconscious, we take a picture and make a description and send them to all the other hospitals. We then ask anyone from out of town who comes in to see if they can identify some of the people in the book." He explained.

She nodded. That was actually a kind of interesting idea.

She flipped it open, scanning page after page of random people. The book was organized by year. She got to the list of people discovered three years ago and continued to flip, not really paying much attention anymore.

She flipped another page and froze her eyes widening. It was he.

"Excuse me, doctor, is this man still in the care of a hospital here?" she asked, afraid to let hope creep into her voice.

He took the book and scanned the page.

"Hmm, JD # 869. I'll go check." He said with a smile as he handed the book back to her and left the room.

She stared at the picture, her fingers running over the familiar shapes and markings. Down the scar on the left side of his face.

"Yup, he's still in our care. Why, do you know him?" the doctor asked as he came back into the room.

"Yes…yes I do." She responded, eyes still glued to the picture.

"Well, he's been in a hospital in the far north of the country for over three years now. He's in a catatonic state, hasn't moved or reacted to anything since he showed up. I swear, he's lucky hospital service is free here or he'd have one hell of a bill if he wakes up." The doctor joked.

"Can you tell me how to get to this hospital?" she asked, her eyes serious and intense, a hint of hope and desperation coloring her voice.

"Of course, but before I do, you have to let me treat you." The doctor sighed.

She glared suddenly, how dared he interfere and keep her here longer? But he was right, he had said she would find him much further north; she needed to be in her best health possible.

She nodded in compliance.

~~~

Well, that's it for now. I'm just going to take up a bit of space down here to respond to a few more review questions ^_^

Naruto fics I love that have inspired me: Many have noticed a few similarities between my fic and some other ones, I hope they only remind you of them though and you don't think I'm ripping them off.

I really love Addiction by ph34R_tH3_CuT3_0N3s, Wasted Years by Mizerable and Another Wolf by coetzee b. They're all really incredible works and I love them.

For Kayoko, no I don't have an updating schedule. I just post as I write which is turning out to be about two chapters a day (with the exemption of Tuesday because I was studying for an exam). Umm…I'm thinking of ripping off an idea of coetzee b's which is to use your live journal to share updates. Seeing as I don't really use my journal for anything, I'm thinking of starting to use it to brainstorm and post random writings that didn't make it into the story (so you can see the what might have beens I guess) and my livejournal can be found at livejournal.com/users/anotherstraycat

And thanks for the suggestion about the summary, I agree. I wrote it when the fic was still a one shot. It is rather lame isn't it? I'll fix it. ^_^

And thank you to wicked_innuendo for the tip about italics on FF.net.

See you all in the next chapter ^_~

~ Tea Leaf