Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

Luck is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

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I was groggy and nauseous and not even sure I was really awake.

But I was also panicking. My heart was still beating its staccato rhythm in my chest, spurring adrenaline through my system. Now, now, move now it sang. You have no time.

My face was pressed against concrete. Gravel bit into my cheek. It was a distant feeling, devoid of any pain. Just a fact to be acknowledged. Probably not good. My eyes were blurry. Or it was dark. Was it dark?

I fumbled, moving my arms until I could get them under me, could push myself upright.

Not restrained. That was something. That meant something.

But the world swam as I tried to move. The ground tried to throw me off. I retched; tried not to throw up. Threw up anyway. The acid stink of vomit was competing with some other kind of smell. Burning meat. Blood.

There were hands on my shoulders.

I twisted away. Tried to fumble with my chakra. There was nothing there. Nothing there at all. Just a blank guttering void inside me. Not good.

My heart tripped, stuttering over its beating.

"Shikako! Shikako, it's us!" I heard the words, heard the sounds but they took so long to organize into meaning. To become safe.

"She blew up his head. That's sick."

"Shut up, Kankurou." Ino. That was Ino's voice. The hands on my back, moving me, they were Ino's hands. The chakra sweeping unsteadily through me, that was Ino's chakra. She sounded distressed. Felt distressed. Ino.

"He deserved it," Kiba said, voice underscored by a low, threatening growl that just went on and on. Akamaru, then.

Something. There was. Something important. I should. There was something missing.

"Hinata?" I croaked, the world travelling light years to spill out my mouth. My tongue fumbled against my teeth, blurring the sounds.

Someone burst into tears. Okay. That was Hinata. Good.

Not good. Why is she crying? Who dared make Hinata cry like that?

I threw up again. My arms collapsed. Just gave way beneath me with no warning. Someone caught me, held me up so I didn't land in my own vomit. Lovely.

Then there was a sound like a sonic boom. Like someone sliding out of body flicker so fast and so hard the world around them had to make space. Killing intent simmered in the air, bright and cold. Like lightning.

I'd never felt it before. But it was familiar and comforting all the same.

Sharingan no Kakashi had arrived and was ready to murder the fuck out of people.

I closed my eyes.

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The next time I woke, I was drowning in chakra. It flooded my lungs, filled my throat. I couldn't breathe.

"Stop being dramatic," Tsunade said irritably, and my lungs went up and down without my permission. My heart beat in a steady rhythm under her strict guidance. Her chakra was filling me up, was everywhere, little lights inside my blood.

I opened my eyes.

Her hand moved away from my face, hovered over my chest for a second, then withdrew. The feeling of drowning went with it.

I gasped, choked a little, but breathed easier. There was a residual hum of her chakra, green and friendly, left behind in the empty spaces where I had nothing. I was still chakra exhausted. But chakra exhausted like I had been following my match with Gaara, not like I had spent that very crucial last piece trying to escape a kidnapping.

Kidnapping. Right.

I sat up. Pretty much every part of me protested. But the ground wasn't trying to throw me off any more. Any improvement was accepted, at this stage.

We were in an alley, maybe only a street or two away from the theater. They hadn't managed to take me very far. It was a little crowded. Ino, hovering at my side, eyes red and looking at Tsunade with a look of undisguised wonder. Kiba, Hinata and Kankurou slightly further off with Kurenai. Kakashi, posture ramrod straight for once, glaring daggers at a familiar Grass ninja – the women who had been in charge of the Exams. She was flustered, glancing away from his exposed Sharingan. Further out, more Grass nin holding a barricade, keeping people from looking in, maybe setting up genjutsu so it didn't look like there was anything here.

And the headless corpse, lying only feet away from me. Couldn't forget that. I had a vivid recollection of trying to plant a Touch Blast on him. It had been a last resort, because I'd had no other choice, because it had been the only thing left I could even try. I'd had no idea whether it had worked or not.

Obviously it had. Thankfully. I'd had little enough concentration, but it was something I had practiced hugely. Just this morning I'd planted them with my feet while evading Gaara's attacks, using only a fraction of my attention. And even if it hadn't been one hundred percent correct, it had still done what I'd needed it to. Explode.

I will never complain about being known for these, I thought, semi-hysterically. Ever again.

"Bullshit," Kakashi-sensei snarled at the Grass nin. His anger was roiling off of him in almost tangible waves, a separate feeling to the tightly leashed killing intent. This was the Kakashi Hatake that other villages knew. This was the threat. The danger. "I want to know what the fuck you think you're playing at. A kidnapping in the middle of the exams?"

She stepped back, hands up and palms out, pacifying, almost a gesture of surrender. "We will have to identify him before I can give you any information. That might be," her eyes drifted across, "slightly difficult. This was not ordered by Kusagakure in any way, shape, or form. Of that I am certain. I will get to the bottom of this."

Kakashi-sensei gave the fullest impression of sneering, for someone whose mouth was covered. "Bullshit," he repeated. His sharingan spun, angrily.

Tsunade sighed and rose gracefully, brushing the dirt and gravel from her pants. "Kakashi," she said mildly. "Stand down. I'm sure Hidden Grass is going to cooperate to the fullest of their abilities." And her smile was no less terrifying than his rage had been. "This is obviously a very serious situation. We wouldn't want it to escalate."

Kakashi-sensei reluctantly stepped back. He obviously didn't want to but this really wasn't the place to challenge the Hokage.

"Shikako," Tsunade continued. "Describe what happened."

I put aside the little gibbering corner of my mind, and tried to arrange my recollections in a coherent way.

"We left the theater," I said. "I was separated by the crowd. I didn't think much of it – there were a lot of people and the doors aren't that wide. I was on the left hand side of the road. I was trying to get back to Kurenai-sensei when someone grabbed me from behind. They put a cloth over my face with some kind of chemical anesthetic. Chloroform, maybe." I shrugged. If Tsunade couldn't tell from healing me, then the cloth was bound to be around here somewhere. "They pulled me out of the crowd and down one of the alleys, I think. It was very fast. I don't know if anyone noticed."

"And then?" she prompted.

I looked at the body. Kaboom, my mind suggested helpfully. "I got free?" I said. "I think the others found me. It's a bit hazy."

That appeared to be satisfactory, anyway. I guessed the others had told her their side already. And the evidence pretty much spoke for itself here.

I'd probably only been out for a few minutes the first time, before being found by Ino and the rest, if that. They'd have been fast and I wasn't far away. Maybe a bit longer the second time, if Tsunade had been called and arrived and healed me.

Tsunade nodded. "Kurenai, take the kids back to the cabins and keep them there. Get Asuma to take his lot back too. They're on total lockdown now. No one goes anywhere."

Which was a fair enough response. We had too many clan heirs and blood limits here to take this lightly. It didn't matter if it was a one off, because if it wasn't handled right it could very easily become a free for all. With us as the prize.

I struggled to my feet. And very swiftly had an Ino under one arm and a Kiba under the other. On one hand, yes, good. On the other, I didn't like the obvious weakness in front of all the other ninja. I'd been kidnapped, I'd been knocked out, I'd needed healing and now I couldn't even walk on my own.

Kaboom, my mind repeated, quietly. I looked up. Caught the eye of anyone who was looking at me and held it, with that thought repeating. Kaboom.

Kurenai herded us away, through the streets towards the cabins. Her hand was on my shoulder, a steady presence, strong but slightly chilled.

"I'm sorry," she said, voice tight. "That should never have happened."

"There was another ninja," Ino said, explaining to me, quietly. Her voice was steady, but she was holding onto me so tightly. "He hit the crowd with a genjutsu. Nothing serious, really. We thought it was just a joke. Kurenai-sensei reversed it back on him and took him down."

He'd drawn the attention of our Jounin. Maybe he'd been part of it, a two man team, or maybe the other guy had just seen the chance and taken it.

"Then when we looked back," Ino continued. "You were gone. Just… vanished out of the crowd. Between one blink and the next. Everyone was panicking because of the genjutsu, and we couldn't find you."

They'd been fast, then. It had felt fast, to me, but I'd been in the middle of it. Any ninja could have managed it, though, it was just a matter of speed and timing. And luck.

"We would have found you anyway," Kiba said, confidently. "Even if you hadn't blown up his fucking face. No way could they have hidden from me and Hinata." Akamaru barked once, as if emphasizing the point.

I nodded, lethargically. "You know who they were?"

Kurenai-sensei's hand squeezed, gently. "I'm sure Kakashi-san will find out."

"They're saying he's not a Hidden Grass ninja," Hinata said, voice quiet.

I tilted my head to look at her. It felt like trying to move the world with my neck. Her Byakugan was going. Ah. Information gathering. Could she read lips like that?

"Kakashi-sensei doesn't believe them," Hinata continued. "I don't think Tsunade-sama does either."

Of course they'd be saying that. No way did they want Konoha to come down on them like a ton of bricks. A ton of angry Kakashi. That was a lot of angry Kakashi-sensei. They would go squish. "Say he's an infiltrator, take the slap on the wrist for a security flaw," I mumbled.

"There's other possibilities, though," Ino said, and she looked at Hinata too. "Other than Grass."

"Let's not speculate," Kurenai-sensei said, calmly. "Let's just get you back to the cabins, okay?"

The cabins were a flurry of confusion and activity. The Jounin sensei were all outside, looking casual but covering enough of the perimeter between them that it had to be anything but. Asuma-sensei was already there, he'd hustled his group back once the commotion had started, as a precaution, but none of them had actually known what was going down.

He took one look at us, face grim, and directed us inside. I could feel the mental security alert ticking higher.

Everyone exploded into questions all at once, talking over each other.

"What happened?" Sasuke demanded, taking one look at me. "We heard the explosion. That was you, right?"

That would explain how Kakashi-sensei had arrived so quickly. Thank you, explosions, I thought.

"Someone tried to kidnap Shikako-chan," Ino said grimly, not even attempting to break the ice gently. Though how would you go about that? Well, I'm sorry to say, there was a small incident. And by small I mean large. And by large I mean-

There was a brief beat of silence. And then everyone exploded into questions again. This time there wasn't even the hope of picking one voice out from the rest.

"Hey, hey!" Kiba barked. "Let her sit down. Then you can hear all about it."

I was dragged to one of the beds and propped up on it. Then bundled in layers of blankets until I could barely move a muscle. Water and food appeared out of nowhere and were forced into my face. In between resisting my over eager helpers, I could see Hinata and Neji having a quiet, hurried conversation.

"Tsunade-sama and Kakashi-sensei are over there demanding answers," Ino said, after filling them in on what had actually happened that we knew about. It wasn't a lot, truthfully. We knew the where and the how, but the who and why… that was the important stuff.

"It was either a really good attempt or a really bad one," she said. "I'm not sure which. It failed, so I want to say 'bad' but… it nearly worked. If they'd had somewhere to take her nearby where we couldn't follow…"

If they'd tried to launch an immediate retaliation, a full ninja response to follow me, it might have looked like Konoha was the aggressor. Might not have worked, but it might have muddied waters for long enough. And who knows what would have happened next.

I shivered. And immediately had Akamaru bundled down my front like a furry hot water bottle.

If they'd been smart enough to know how to avoid a tracking team. If. If. If. They'd been smart enough to get me out of the crowd, to distract the others. Had it just been a moment of opportunity? Had they arranged it?

"You killed him?" Neji asked, voice flat and face hard.

I nodded, tiredly. "Yeah. It was all I could do." Later, when I had the energy to be horrified, I would be horrified at how close I'd been to not getting away. At the way I had had so few options. I was too tired for it, right now. It would involve incriminations and regrets.

"That's not good," Neji said, completely failing to read my mind. Rude.

Sasuke stood, angry and confrontational. "It was the best thing she could have done," he snarled. "And if she hadn't killed him, I'd do it myself!"

Neji shook his head. "It's not," he repeated, but not angrily. Maybe wearily. Maybe resigned. "Because now there's no proof there even was a kidnapping. Or any way to get answers about what went down."

He was likening it to what had happened in Konoha ten years ago. It was nearly the same. A kidnapping gone bad. And if that had taught us anything, it was that it could still go worse.

"Kurenai-sensei caught the other one, though. He's alive," Ino said slowly. It was clear she was thinking through all the implications. There was something clear and empty about her expression, like she was a marble statue, unmoving through the ages. I wondered if I looked like that, when I thought hard. Probably I just looked confused. "And he used genjutsu on the crowd. There are bound to be other ninja that can collaborate that fact. So it's clear we didn't start it."

"Okay," Tenten said, a calm head amidst all the worried faces. "So who benefits? Basic investigation question, right? Who benefits from trying to take Shikako?"

There was a moment of silence. I'm sure more than one of us was thinking the same thing.

"If they were after bloodlines, I'd be the last pick," I said, when it was clear no one else would say the obvious thing. "Not with Hinata and Ino right next to me." In terms of inheritable abilities, doujutsu and mindreading beat out shadows. Not even a hard decision. "So it was me, specifically, that they wanted. Something I did, or something I know."

Which was weird and baffling. But I'd played a strong hand here at the exams, so there might have been people who wanted to cash in on it. Or were annoyed by it.

Hidden Grass was the obvious pick. Was it too obvious? Or had they been that worried by the fight with Muku?

Too many questions; no answers.

I yawned, eyelids like atlas failing to lift the world.