Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

I bit my lip and looked over my shoulder. "Go with them," I decided. But I exchanged a look with my team that said 'keep an eye open, just in case' as well.

The carriage turned down a side road, winding away until it was off the main streets. There were more guards there, waiting, but they had horses with them.

"We thought you were dead," Korega said, sounding relieved. "And Hikaru-dono, too. It wasn't until we received word from the docks that you had returned that we began to hope. And even then we thought we would be too late… But this isn't the place to talk. My men will take care of the carriage and dissuade the pursuers."

He helped the prince out of the carriage and onto one of the horses but hesitated when he turned to us.

"These are my bodyguards," Michiru said. "Shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Leaves. You are staying, aren't you?" he asked anxiously.

"We are," I said, reassuringly. "Our mission was to return you home safely. That hasn't happened yet."

"That is fortunate," Korega said, though he did look a little dubious after examining us. "There are rumors that Shabadaba has hired ninja himself."

"It's true," Shikamaru said dryly.

Korega and his guards lead us all out of the city, into the forested area that made up the outer edge of the islands crescent shape. We did our best to obscure the trail we left, but if Shabadaba's ninja had any forest skills they would probably be able to find us.

As we fled I ran a diagnostic jutsu on myself, trying to find the poison. But poisons were not my specialty – they were nothing so obvious as bleeding wounds or broken bones – and there was little I could do. It might have broken down inside me already, if it were such a fast acting thing.

There was a surprise waiting for us, when we reached the little cave that they were using as a campsite. I sent Shikamaru and Kiba off to quickly set up perimeters and to scout around and Sai hovered quietly behind me.

"Papa," Michiru called, dashing inside to the figure that was laid out on a futon. "What's wrong, papa?"

So the king wasn't dead, after all. That… might be helpful.

"The king is very ill," Korega said quietly, as the form on the futon failed to stir at all, no matter how much Michiru begged. Hikaru hovered like a quite shadow, hand curled in his father's shirt.

"What happened?" I asked. I could fill in the general picture, of course, but this was someone who likely knew the details.

Korega nodded, like he understood what I was asking. "The King and the First Minister have always had their differences," he said. "But it became much more apparently recently. The King began to implement a new social security program – helping those in this country who do not have the means to help themselves. It was very taxing on the treasury and many of the wealthy did not support it. The King thought that they would come around, once it became clear that the program was working and that the country was not suffering for it. But it seemed that they only cared about the bottom line."

Ah, money. So many things came back to the money.

"We advised the King to be careful but it seems even we weren't prepared for how far Shabadaba was willing to go," Korega admitted. "He staged a coup and though we got away, the King is… well. I don't know how to describe it. You should see for yourself."

He waved me inside. I left Sai standing sentry and ducked into the cave, my eyesight adjusting to the shadowy darkness.

"He won't wake up," Michiru said to me tearfully. "Can you help him?"

"I can try," I offered and ran through a diagnostic jutsu.

And then paused. The data came back, jumbled and vague.

I reached out and turned the covers down. Michiru gasped in horror. The Kings arm and chest had been turned to stone. I touched it, gingerly. It was crumbly and rough but hard. Stone.

"We don't know how it happened," Korega said. "Or how to fix it. We think one of the Ministers ninja must have done it but…" he trailed off.

"I haven't seen anything like it before, either," I admitted, running through a diagnostic jutsu again. It still came back a jumble of useless information but I thought, maybe, I sensed natural energy in the stone portions of his limbs.

Natural energy does turn things to stone.

That gave me exactly zero idea of how to fix anything, though. And the fact was, the petrification was causing a lot of other problems with his body and systems. One lung was partially petrified, and there were veins and arteries and nerves…

I rocked back on my heels, painfully aware that he didn't have long to survive. Maybe Tsunade could have saved him, right now, but I was no Tsunade.

"I can wake him up," I offered, tentatively. "But, I'm sorry, I can't heal him."

Korega closed his eyes, but the admission didn't seem to surprise him any. It was grief, quickly wrangled and barred behind gates of duty.

"Wake him up," he agreed. "Let him see that his son has returned."

I changed the humming of chakra in my hands, coaxing the old man to consciousness. His breathing was heavy and labored, but his eyes slowly cracked open and there was intelligence there.

"Grandfather?" Hikaru asked, timidly. "Grandfather, are you hurt?"

The old man drew in a rattling breath. "Ah, Hikaru. How nice to see you again." He smiled and it seemed real, even if it was tight with pain. "And Michiru. You've both come home."

"Yes, papa," Michiru said, clutching his hand. "We're here now."

"And how," the King started, then paused for breath. He looked up, past his son to the captain of the guard. "And how is the country doing?"

Korega shook his head. "The coup goes on," he admitted.

The King sighed, a long mournful thing. "I see," he said. And clearly he did – he understood exactly what was going on here. "Tell me, Michiru. What do you think of this country of ours?"

Michiru blinked in confusion, but gamely tried to answer. "It's a wonderful place," he said. "Full of value and beauty."

"Yes," the King agreed tiredly. "But so much more than that too. I dreamed of building a country that was full of smiles and happiness, of hope and dreams. But recently I looked down on my people and found that those things were missing. We didn't become happy with only prosperity. I tried to fix that but it was too late."

He fell silent, nearly gasping for air.

Michiru looked bewildered. "Papa, I don't understand."

"It will be your job now," the King said. "Michiru. I am sorry to leave this to you. I know you are not ready. But won't you please make this country a place where people can be happy?"

His eyes were fluttering shut.

"What? Papa!" Michiru shook him, gently at first then harder. "Papa, wake up." He turned to me. "Please, wake him up again!" There were tears gathering in his eyes and starting to stream down his face.

I sat back. "I'm sorry," I said quietly.

Hikaru started to cry, loud and messy. "Grandfather!"

I slipped backwards, out of the cave and unnoticeably as I could. My team was waiting outside, but I had no doubt they'd heard. "The King is dead," I said. "Long live the King."

Politically, our mission was even more important now. Our client was the King. We couldn't afford for him to get hurt.

"Do you have more barrier seals?" Shikamaru asked. "We can surround the camp."

"Only one set," I admitted. "And they wouldn't last long enough." I stared out into the darkness and tried to narrow down our options. There was a lot hanging in the balance and I wished I wasn't the leader here – I didn't want to be the one making the call. "How do you feel about fighting those ninja?"

"The poison is going to be a problem," Kiba said bluntly. "We barely got any of it and it still made you stumble. If we breathe more of it, we're done for."

"We don't know what the others can do, either," Shikamaru pointed out. "Or how strong they are. It's too risky to engage them."

"We can't expect to escape them," Sai pointed out, the voice of pessimism. "Or evade them for long. The island is not large and they will expect us to flee."

I grimaced, because they all had good points. We could call for backup but we'd still have to hold out until backup reached us. We could run but we'd have to get away.

"We have a boat off shore," Korega said, ducking out of the cave. His voice was quiet. "We couldn't move the King but…" he swallowed. "If we get Michiru-dono and Hikaru-dono to it then we can take them to safety. There are allied countries we can ask for help."

I nodded slowly but- "They'll expect us to flee," I echoed Sai's words. I couldn't see any way around having to fight again. Which meant we were going to need a way to deal with the poison.

I tapped my fingers together.

"Got an idea?" Shikamaru asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

"For the poison," I elaborated. "I think I have some medical masks. They won't keep the poison out, of course. But I could put a seal on them…"

"To filter it?" He asked.

"No." I frowned. "I'm not sure anyway. And there's not really a lot of time to experiment. But if I just make a storage seal and put a whole lot of air in it…" I wave a hand around, gesturing at all the very clean, very nice non-poison air we happened to be breathing. "And then just let it release constantly while we were wearing it…"

A primitive hack job of an oxygen tank, basically. But it would keep us breathing fresh air, which would be the thing that mattered.

No one seemed to have an objection to that.

"Right," I went on. "That's the poison issue, then. But Sai is right –they'll be expecting us to leave. They're probably watching the beaches. Can your ink creations hold a transformation? Can they look like people?"

If Naruto had been here, shadow clones would have been perfect. Otherwise we'd have to use transformation ourselves – and have an obvious lack of ninja – or illusion clones which were insubstantial.

Sai blinked. "I can make Ink Clones, yes," he confirmed.

"Good," I said. "We'll make a diversion then. Take a couple of ink clones down to the beach and stall the ninja when they attack us. Korega will wait with the real Michiru behind the barrier seals and then make a run for the boat once the fighting has started."

.

.

The sun had set and left only the light of the moon to guide us by the time we were ready – by the time I'd made our masks, by the time we'd relocated closer to the shore line and found somewhere safe to put up the barrier seals to keep Michiru and Hikaru protected. They had to be close enough to know when it was safe to go, yet far enough away to remain undetected.

Then we stepped out onto the beach. All the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, as the feeling of walking into a trap intensified.

It wasn't the closest stretch to the palace. We weren't trying to look obvious. But if they were paying attention, it certainly wouldn't take them long to get here.

I fixed my mask over my mouth. The air was like a steady wind blowing past, slightly chilled. Half an hour worth, maybe, if I'd calculated it right. Shikamaru and Sai were wearing theirs but Kiba had his slung around his neck.

"I can't smell anything," he said. "I'll put it on when I have to."

"Your call," I said. He knew himself best. I'd just given everyone the best tools I could.

We moved slowly across the sand, the ink clones mimicking the heavy slow tread of the prince- of the king.

We almost made it to the water's edge, to the small rowboats waiting for us, when I sensed them coming. I gave the signal.

Sai drew an ink bird and took to the sky, getting distance for an extra layer of safety. Kiba snapped his mask into place, and Akamaru transformed into his Human Beast Clone form and was given one too. I dropped my resistance seals and enhanced my muscles with chakra.

We were as prepared as we were going to get when a barrage of kunai flew out of the trees towards us.

"Earth Style; Earth Wall!" I barked, slapping my hands down on the sand. A dune of sand surged higher, catching the kunai, though to call it a 'wall' would have been charitable.

Sand scattered in the wind as the kunai exploded and there were plumes of worryingly coloured smoke. It wasn't close to us but I was acutely conscious of the fact that we were dealing with unknown poison.

"You are going to pay," Karenbana hissed, voice low and furious as the three of them landed on the beach. "I'm going to enjoy killing you."

There were times for attempting to de-escalate situations. And there were times when those times were passed. "You wanna come down here and say that to my face?" I asked. "Or are you too scared?"

Her face contorted in anger and she vanished in a swirl of flower petals that twisted like a tornado.

Unimpressed, I shattered the genjutsu with a twist of my chakra.

And then Kiba and Akamaru slammed into the group, throwing swathes of sand into the air with their Fang Over Fang.

I darted forward, using the sand as cover to launch my own attack. The sound of my lightsaber cut through the air, giving the barest of warnings before I could stab Ishidate in the back. He twisted out of the way, retaliating with surprising speed. But I had speed now, too. And light. And shadows.

The third ninja – Kongo – was equally as fast but even stronger. He caught me with a blow that sent me tumbling across the sand. But then I was back on my feet and back in the fight. It was a fast paced whirlwind of techniques – between Shikamaru and I using launching shadows and Kiba's Inuzuka taijutsu and Sai providing tactical support from above – we weren't winning but we were definitely stalling.

And then Kiba stumbled. Or not Kiba; Akamaru. He turned back, whimpering, and staggered sideways on the sand.

"Akamaru?" Kiba yelped, alarmed. He turned.

"Did you think," Karenbana mocked. "That just because you didn't breathe it, you were safe?"

I understood our mistake all at once. Contact poison. Fuck. Akamaru was the smallest of us, had succumbed first, and it was a warning that we needed to get out. Now.

Kongo leapt for Kiba. I felt the world slow as I saw it – the killing blow that would land. Kiba wouldn't, couldn't, react in time. I couldn't react in time.

And then Shikamaru's shadow was there, punching through his shoulder and pinning him in the air, holding him aloft like a particularly ugly prize.

Shikamaru panted and sunk to one knee, one hand outstretched to direct his jutsu.

Ishidate grabbed it. The black glove on his hand flared to life suddenly, ugly crimson light filling the air. It felt like it dragged, like it had a gravity all of its own, pulling chakra into it.

There was a sound, almost like the cracking of ice.

Grey stone spread out from under his hand. It climbed down, covering wrist and hand, and up past the elbow.

"Shikamaru!" I yelled, eyes going wide with horror. Karenbana's kunai lodged itself in my back, totally irrelevant compared to what I could see.

Ishidate twisted his hand.

And Shikamaru's

arm

shattered.