The Players
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing from the Naruto universe but I do have an imagination of my own.
Thinking
Biju, etc. speaking
Biju, etc. thinking
Emphasis
It had been nearly three days since the nine-tailed fox had wrecked so much of Konoha and there were still too many questions left unanswered.
The girl found inside the barrier next to Kushina-sama continued to lie unconscious in the bowels of the T&I Department. Interrogation officers had tried everything to awaken the girl for questioning but had only succeeded in even seeing the girl move on five occasions. She had been drugged, had seals placed on her, and been shocked into consciousness, but the only reaction they received from the child had been the intense pain she displayed as she clutched her stomach as well as her moans of despair or screams. She would always pass out again immediately following their efforts, and the experts in the department had today stopped trying to elicit a reaction. They were afraid that they would kill the girl before getting answers, from the way it was going. Tsunade-hime was finally called in to oversee the child's case from a medical standpoint.
The Yondaime had walked in on the first day of the girl's capture, turned, and walked back out. He was given updates on her status, but couldn't stand to look at her. Things only became worse when he learned of the identity of the masked man who had ripped the nine-tails from his beloved Kushina and attacked his missing baby. Obito Uchiha, his believed-to-be-dead student, had been torn to pieces by the Bijuu.
How could it even be true? Although testing was done to confirm that the attacker was in fact the missing Uchiha, Minato had to see the boy's face before he believed it. When he did see that face, marred by terrible scars on one side - just like the rest of his body - he nearly fell apart. Minato's only remaining student, Kakashi, did fall to pieces and was now under observation. As much as Kushina would have been able to help the 14-year-old who had lived with them for years, Minato was somewhat glad that she had been placed in a medical coma. He couldn't imagine her reaction to finding out about sweet and feisty Obito: they had both loved him, too.
Tsunade had been requesting to attend to the blonde-haired unknown girl since she first stabilized Kushina. She knew very well the methods of those having supposed medical expertise in the T&I Department. Adding that to how angry everyone is about the attack on the village, the Slug Sannin worried that the girl would be killed before knowing who or what she was, and what possible enemy village to which she might belong. Additionally, the girl might have information about the missing Namikaze baby. They needed to keep the girl alive to find out where she was.
Today was the first day that she'd seen the young blonde for herself. Although she'd heard from her sensei, the Sandaime, that the unknown girl resembled the Yondaime, she was shocked at how true that was. The main difference her face held was the obvious little whisker-like scars or birthmarks on her cheeks, something she had never seen or heard about before. Her first thought was that someone must have gone to very great lengths in order to change the girl's original appearance, or that perhaps she just happened to look like Minato-kun, so was placed in this position. Whether the girl herself was an assassin or was in fact less guilty could only be answered by the girl and Konoha's investigation of both the scene and the little blonde.
Tsunade decided to take a different tactic with the unconscious child. Even in her sleep, the blonde clutched her stomach and curled up her knees. Maybe something other than a stimulant would make the child relax and then they could further examine her. Rather than stuffing her full of amphetamines and more to awaken her, Tsunade injected the child with a sedative. She had to try something, and she decided to do this with the safety of her patient in mind, at least for now.
It worked, for a while. The girl relaxed her posture - her legs sliding down the bed some, followed by a lessening of the crouch she was in as she laid upon the small hospital bed. But all too soon, the child cramped up again, seeming to be in agony. Tsunade was shocked by how quickly the potent sedatives had stopped working in the child's system. Then again, she had heard of what sounded to her like fatal wounds the child had upon being found at the scene, and all of those were healed. It made little sense. Tsunade had a theory, but there was no way she would utter it out loud: it was just too crazy. Investigate first, wildly theorize later.
He had been in a state of shock, but now he was pissed. And even though he had just turned 14, one doesn't want to piss off Kakashi Hatake. Stuck in the home he shared with Kushina-nee and Minato-sensei and being observed was not making anything better. He had been repeatedly told that they were keeping him here because of his so-called breakdown after discovering the truth about Obito. Obito: you ass! What the hell were you thinking? He probably wasn't - that would be Obito in a nutshell. Kakashi pulled his hair again. Looking back, he simply couldn't imagine Obito, of all people, to have tried to assassinate his newborn imouto and do what he had done to the woman he thought both of them considered to be a mother figure!
Kakashi began looking for a way out of the house without being seen. Had he been placed in the hospital he was sure he would have gotten out easily: he always did. Now he had to deal with his overprotective sensei and one ANBU after another making sure he stayed put. The whole situation was nearly as bad as being forced to stay at the hospital. If I was there, I could at least check on Kushina-nee, he thought bitterly.
Plus he'd heard about that girl, the one found where his newborn baby sister should have been. Kakashi didn't even realize that he'd let out a growl just thinking about her. No one messed with his village or especially what remained of his pack without him administering some very painful justice.
At the hospital, the Yondaime, Sandaime, as well as Tsunade-hime's apprentice, Shizune, stood around the bed of Kushina Uzumaki. Finally, her violet eyes fluttered open. Minato immediately placed his arm around her to help her chew some ice. It was all she would be allowed for now.
"Minato-kun?" she asked in a broken voice. "Our baby?" The redhead's eyes welled with tears.
"We're… Oh, Kushina! There's been a…" How can I tell her? He'd been preparing himself since the incident took place but after seeing her beautiful eyes, he just didn't want to hurt her any more than she already was.
"You didn't finish the sealing." She said it as a fact, not a question.
Minato was surprised. He'd been hit so hard by the Kyuubi that he honestly thought he had, especially as the Kyuubi wasn't still destroying the village and its people. He had theorized on why the Shinigami hadn't appeared and taken his soul, but was only grateful to still be alive, although that was incredibly tempered by the fact that his daughter had disappeared. "Are you sure, Kushina?" The others in the room looked quite alarmed at this news.
Kushina nodded her head. "And, our daughter wasn't on the altar, Minato-kun. But there was a girl…" she cried. "I think the girl was dead." Kushina shook her head in grief, allowing the tears to flow down her very pale face. Minato began to speak when Kushina continued. "Minato, that girl - she had little marks on her face just like our baby!"
"The girl you're speaking of is not dead," Minato said blankly. Kushina looked up at him, wondering why he was using what she called his "Hokage-voice" that lacked emotion even more than usual. He's angry. "However, our daughter… Kushina, I'm sorry. But our daughter is currently missing."
Kushina stared up at her husband for several moments before looking at the others in the room. She couldn't feel anything; she was for lack of a better word, blank. Before she even thought about what she was going to say, her mouth moved on its own. "You said that girl wasn't dead: I want to see her. Please."