This is how Kakashi-sensei and she returned to the starting point, only to realize that the kidnapped chunin team was even further south. Seina used her other stone, in the Land of the Sea, mentally crossing her fingers.
"We must be closer," Kakashi-sensei said with a serious face. "We've been very lucky."
The arrow now pointed southwest, so they knew exactly which direction to head, even though what lay ahead of them was more water.
"Another base in the sea?" she asked, somewhat surprised. "There was already a base around here."
"Something tells me this base is in the Land of Waves... Relatively close. If so, it would be easy for Orochimaru to exchange material and prisoners from one base to another if needed," he thought out loud, referencing the laboratory base her team and Shino had destroyed months ago. "We must have been very close to the base when we did that mission for Tazuna... Turns out we were luckier than we thought."
They flew towards the unknown base for a few minutes. When they crossed the imaginary border between the Land of the Sea and the Land of Waves, Seina realized that Kakashi-sensei was right. All this time, there had been a base just a few kilometres from the bridge they helped build, without anyone noticing. They saw it again from afar. It was a small island, also made of grey rock, with even less vegetation. The only difference was that there was no structure built into the rock.
"It looks like the entrance is hidden."
"We'll land on the top of that peak," the jonin pointed out.
They landed on the steep summit of the island, realizing how high it actually was, and descended the slope using their invisibility bracelets. Kakashi-sensei pointed to some small holes in the distance on the rock, which, upon closer inspection, were artificial vents for the base.
"I can smell a lot of people inside," he signalled with his hands. "Send one of your summons."
Seina did so. The first thing she encountered were cells, and more cells as far as the eye could see. At the far end was a stone staircase leading to the upper and lower levels.
"Get us in."
She obeyed again after making sure they were covered by the bracelet. They appeared in the stairwell, hearing the moans of some prisoners and the angry, resigned silence of many others. The curious thing was that no one raised their voice. She would have thought someone, some fool, would be shouting to be freed, but that wasn't the case. What in the world had they seen or been through that no one wanted to draw attention?
Kakashi-sensei touched her arm, indicating they should go down the stairs in search of the Konoha team. An arm held her back for a millisecond before she realized someone was coming up the stairs. She froze, half-hidden behind her teacher's body, as the grumpy jailer climbed up with trays of food that looked truly awfull. As he passed by, she saw a black seal on his neck and wondered if that was the seal Orochimaru had wanted to put on Sasuke.
"Here's your food, scum!" he shouted as soon as he appeared in the corridor of the upper floor. "If you don't want to starve, you better eat."
Seina turned again, seeing how Kakashi-sensei had both eyes uncovered, one grey and one black, fixed on the stairwell. They listened as the ninja handed out the food before continuing down the stairs, following the direction of her spell. The lower floor was another corridor with more prisoners, just like the third underground floor. It wasn't until they reached the bottom floor, at sea level, that they discovered the infirmary, a testing laboratory, and more cells.
She had to hold her breath when she saw the condition of some of the prisoners. Thanks to her auditory spells, she knew that some were dead or on the verge of death. Some were so emaciated they were unrecognizable, while others seemed to have undergone all kinds of experiments. It was inhumane. Kakashi-sensei walked silently to one of the cells, nodding inside. She instantly recognized the ninja. He was one of the chunin who frequently worked at the main gate, registering the entry and exit of ninjas and civilians.
"We need to get him out of here. His heartbeat is very weak," she pointed out urgently, hearing the slow, irregular pulse of his heart.
"Let's find the others."
Fortunately, the rest of the chunin team was in nearby cells. Unfortunately, they were all severely injured. The Inuzuka, in addition to being on the brink of death, seemed to be in shock, staring wide-eyed at his dead ninken beside him.
"Get them out of here. I'll take care of the ninjas on this floor," Kakashi-sensei instructed.
Seina had followed each of his orders without complaint, but realizing that he intended to face an unknown number of Orochimaru's henchmen alone made her narrow her eyes, and she had to bite her tongue not to openly disobey. He must have seen it written on her face because he touched her shoulder reassuringly, and she knew he was asking her to trust him. She felt a nervous tic in her cheek but reluctantly agreed.
She turned away, knowing he was heading into the laboratory, while preparing several portkeys with some unsealed stones she had in her pouch. She threw a stone to each of them, using the coordinates of the summit where they had landed, and activated the portkeys. She had no idea what the fuinjutsu surrounding the cells meant, but she preferred not to activate it accidentally by using hiraishin...
She disappeared without a sound. A second later, she reappeared at the summit, seeing them piled on top of each other. She quickly cast some barriers to protect her back while examining her new patients and created several clones. She had to focus on ignoring the spider on Kakashi-sensei's forehead protector before using the diagnostic spell.
One of them had the beginnings of sepsis due to an amputated leg, another was in shock with several broken ribs that had miraculously not punctured a lung, the third was unrecognizable and suffering from multi-organ failure, and the fourth ninja had a cerebral hematoma, several broken bones, and a slight brain haemorrhage. Perfect.
She left her clones to treat three of them and focused on the one with the worst prognosis, assisted by a clone. She didn't know how long she spent reversing the multi-organ failure, ignoring the fight Kakashi-sensei was having with Orochimaru's jailers, but she knew they would have to stop somewhere nearby to set up her magical tent and continue treating them. What was clear was that if she didn't stabilize them, they would die in minutes or a few hours.
Kakashi-sensei appeared just as her clones began to resuscitate the ninja with the cerebral hematoma. He stopped dead in his tracks behind her barriers, carrying a girl her age, maybe a year older, unconscious over his shoulder.
"Status?" he asked behind the barriers. Seina let them fall, seeing that she was no longer alone.
"Very bad. I need to stop somewhere safe, or this one and that one," she nodded toward the ninja teetering between life and death, "will die in an hour or two at most."
"Teleport us with the hiraishin to the nearest place," Kakashi-sensei ordered. "We can't stay here."
She used the clones without saying a word to teleport them all to the Land of the Sea. They fell to the ground with the injured team in their arms. Kakashi-sensei didn't waste a second laying the prisoner on the ground, tied and unconscious, before pulling out his tent, identical to hers, though he didn't need to give explicit permission for people to enter. They took the ninjas inside to the infirmary.
"I'm going to set traps around the tent," the jonin informed her. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
She nodded while swapping places with her clone, resuscitating the ninja, who seemed to have suffered another cardiac arrest due to the hiraishin. Damn it. Why had she wanted to be a medical ninja or a jonin? She could have stayed in Konoha, teaching at the chunin academy!
"The Inuzuka is out of danger," one of her clones said. "The one with the amputated leg is being treated. He's stable for now."
"Great," she replied, feeling a weight lift off her shoulders. "Clean them up and dress them in fresh clothes."
She cast another revival spell when her clone stopped providing air. With relief, she heard the heart begin to beat weakly again. She sensed Kakashi-sensei's presence behind her, standing in the doorway, analysing the scene. A moment later, he closed the few steps between them, coming to stand by her side.
"Can I help with anything?"
"No. Help my clones, if you like."
It took her several hours to reduce the swelling thanks to a brain drain. Without her magic, she would have had to drill into his skull to suction out the blood, which would have been much riskier. Fortunately for him, with magic she could treat him more easily and efficiently. The one she was most worried about now was the ninja with multiple organ failure. With her magic, she had been able to reverse some damage, as well as with the potions she had given him, but he was still on the brink of death. Fortunately, having reversed the traumas that caused the organ failure, she hoped that by keeping him stable and under constant watch, he could pull through in a few days with the help of her magic.
"What's the prognosis?" Kakashi-sensei asked quietly when he saw her treating the most critical patient again. His name was Kotetsu, if she remembered correctly.
"The severe traumas have been healed, and I'm effectively treating the infection. I've restored full respiratory and cardiovascular function, but his liver is still damaged due to a rupture I've already fixed. Overall, the swelling has also reduced, and his coagulation system should reactivate now that he no longer has fractures or ruptures… I'll need to stay by his side or have a clone monitor him constantly, but if he makes it through tonight, I think he'll survive," she finally sighed.
"And the others?"
"I'll easily restore his leg since it's a recent wound," she nodded toward the ninja dressed in freshly sponged-off hospital pyjamas. "The Inuzuka got lucky. He only had fractures, nothing more. His lung wasn't even punctured, though judging by his appearance, he seemed in much worse shape."
"But he lost his ninken," Kakashi-sensei noted, glancing at the dead dog lying at the foot of the bed.
"And he was in shock," she continued. "He'll need help recovering from that."
"And Natori?"
"Natori is the boy with the hematoma?" she asked. Kakashi-sensei nodded. "He was also in critical condition, but I managed to drain the blood… The problem is I don't know if he'll have any lasting effects due to his injuries."
"I see… His wounds seem more recent than Kotetsu's," the jonin mused, observing them closely.
"Definitely. Kotetsu was likely attacked at least three days ago. Otherwise, he wouldn't be this critical. The amputated leg suggests it happened one or two days ago, at most."
"It looks like they tortured one per day… Except for the ninken, which, judging by the rigor mortis, has been dead for at least four days."
"What did you find down there?" she asked, remembering that they had separated for a few minutes. "And who is the prisoner?"
"You'll find it ironic, but the girl seems to be an Uzumaki. She was the first to sense me, surprisingly," Kakashi-sensei confessed with a frown. "She seems to be a sensor type. Did you use your powers to get them out of their cells?"
"Yes. I saw the fuinjutsu and didn't want to accidentally activate it by using chakra."
"That explains why she didn't sense you before I attacked them with a genjutsu. It seems that, even being a sensor, she can't detect your powers. That answers one of my questions. We should eat, or at least have dinner."
"Dinner?"
"Believe it or not, it's just starting to get dark," Kakashi-sensei smiled in her direction. "You were too focused to notice, but we even skipped lunch."
"Good thing I've already prepared the food," she exhaled with a tired laugh.
While eating in the infirmary, keeping an eye on their patients, he explained how he had fought the jailers using his sharingan and a mix of taijutsu and genjutsu.
"You know I used your genjutsu theories to create a new one?" he said with the excitement of a little kid. "I'll show it to you when we get back. I tried it for the first time today, and it was a total success."
"And what does it do?"
"It makes the brain believe that I'm not there."
"Huh," she blinked, understanding its genius. "So, with this genjutsu and the bracelet, you're really invisible, aren't you?"
"Exactly. Now I can use chakra without giving away my position," he smiled in her direction, the troll that he was. "Which means, for all practical purposes, I'm truly invisible."
"So that's why you told me to leave without any hesitation!"
"I had it under control," he shrugged. "Besides, I knew you were more needed to heal the others."
She punched him in the arm, not with much force. The jonin didn't even try to dodge, letting her hit him.
"Hey! What was that for?"
"That's for making me worry," she grumbled, though she wasn't really angry.
Kakashi-sensei wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close, and kissed her forehead. He let her sit back up to finish her meal, while he glanced over at the unconscious ninjas.
"I should put the prisoner in a cell," he finally said, once they finished a piece of fruit.
Seina pulled the suitcase out of her pouch, letting him handle it. Still, in the few minutes Kakashi-sensei took to place the supposed Uzumaki in a cell, none of their patients regained consciousness. Honestly, she'd be surprised if they did for several more hours.
"What are we going to do about the mission? What's going to happen to the prisoners we left at the base? Now there's no one to feed them," she wondered aloud, realizing the issue.
"The truth is, I've been thinking about that. Many were in terrible condition, so if we tried to recover them, it would take quite some time to stabilize them before moving them. Not to mention, Orochimaru might soon suspect something's happened at the base… The best thing we can do is send one of my clones with hiraishin to Konoha to report everything to Tsunade-sama and let her decide what to do."
And so they did. They sent a clone of her teacher and one of her own, so she could return with a response or a team if necessary. Kakashi-sensei, by her side, patiently waited a response from the Hokage. Meanwhile, she busied herself checking the IV drips and fluids she had set up for their patients. They seemed to have gone days without eating, so she had to address that if they were to make it through.
Suddenly, Kakashi-sensei lifted his head.
"Your clone is returning with a team," he informed her. "I'll wait where you placed the seal."
She nodded. The Konoha team that returned with her clone was none other than Shizune, Hayate, and Genma. As soon as they entered the infirmary, they froze upon seeing the four occupied beds and the dead dog on the floor. Shizune wasted no time, rushing to the beds. Seina explained each patient's condition in a low voice, allowing her to verify there was nothing more to be done for treatment.
"You've done an incredible job. They owe you their lives," Shizune sighed after finishing her inspection of Kotetsu and Natori. "It's best not to move them until they regain consciousness."
"That's what I feared."
"Shizune, stay with them and keep watch," Kakashi-sensei ordered, still the team leader. "Hayate will stay here to guard the tent while the rest of us deal with Orochimaru's prisoners. Let's go, Seina."
"What are we going to do with the prisoners?" she asked, stepping out of the magic tent.
"Tsunade-sama wants us to dispose of the bodies and for you to treat those who can recover," he informed her as they walked alongside Genma.
"How many prisoners were there?" Genma asked, pulling the senbon from his mouth.
"I imagine more than 100…"
"The interrogation department is going to hate us for this, Kakashi. Just wait till you see Anko's face when she sees how much work she's got."
"That's not our problem," Kakashi-sensei said lazily. Then he turned to look at her. "It's your turn, Seina."
She raised both arms, molding her chakra to use hiraishin. Fortunately, her teacher had the bright idea to ask her to leave a sealed stone at the base; otherwise, they would've had to fly back from the Land of the Sea.
"Wow. No wonder we couldn't find their bases…"
They entered with one of her summons, landing in the hallway of the lowest floor. Some prisoners watched them awake from behind the bars of their cell doors, others remained unconscious… or worse, dead.
"We'll start with this floor. Genma, would you prefer to get the prisoners out or rig the base with explosives?"
"I'd rather go with the explosives," he admitted without hesitation. "You know fuinjutsu isn't my strong suit."
"Then you know what to do. I'll stay here with Seina, getting the prisoners out while she heals them."
Genma started placing the explosives while Kakashi-sensei undid the fuinjutsu of the first cell, showing her and her clones how to remove the seal without triggering it. She didn't fully understand how it worked since she didn't know the basics of fuinjutsu, but she helped free some prisoners by imitating what he was doing without issue.
As soon as she had her first patients, she began healing their wounds with the help of Katsuyu's small slugs while her clones continued freeing prisoners. Of the first 10 released, 2 of them had succumbed to prior injuries, so she piled them away from the others.
She wasn't sure how long she spent examining Orochimaru's prisoners, but she realized several things. The first was that most of them were civilians or low-ranking ninjas; the second was that there were ninjas from various countries; and the third was that Orochimaru hadn't experimented on all of them yet. It seemed that the newer prisoners had been placed on the upper floors, while those who had been there longer and used in Orochimaru's twisted experiments occupied cells closer to the first-floor laboratory. The only exception had been the Konoha team. Perhaps because he didn't intend to use them for experimentation, but rather to punish Tsunade-sama for repeatedly destroying his bases. She couldn't say for sure.
Hours later, nearing midnight, the pile of corpses was quite large, but at least most had survived.
"Do you think any of them will die in the next few days?" Genma asked in a low voice, looking at the unconscious, treated prisoners.
"It's possible. Some of them, even though they're physically fine, are not... fully present."
"I'm not surprised," Kakashi-sensei sighed. "Who knows how long they've been here or what's been done to them or what they've seen."
"Imagine waiting for your turn, knowing what's going to happen to you," Genma spat, biting down on the senbon again. "That bastard."
"We'll put them in the cells, separate from the other prisoners," Kakashi-sensei said as they began storing the bodies. "I wouldn't want them to attack us out of panic, or turn out to be enemies."
It didn't take long to collect everything. She had to use her summoning to fly and destroy the base from the air with the explosive tags Genma had planted. Once they made sure it had been destroyed, Seina used the hiraishin to return to the tent. Kakashi-sensei stopped Hayate's katana with a kunai just before he realized it was them and ceased his attack.
"How are the others?"
"Mamoru woke up," he said tersely as they entered the tent. "He's inconsolable."
"I'm not surprised."
Seina said nothing. She could vaguely imagine what it meant to lose an animal like his ninken. After all, Hedwig had been something similar to her, although they never fought together. The only time Hedwig entered a battle was to save her from a killing curse. She didn't want to think about what would have happened if Hedwig had been even more present in her life, like Mamoru Inuzuka's ninken.
She didn't enter the infirmary. They all heard Shizune trying to comfort him from outside, with little success. A while later, Shizune called her to the infirmary. The Inuzuka was pretending to sleep behind a curtain that separated him from the others, while the rest remained unconscious.
"How do you see regenerating Futaba-san's leg?" the medic asked in a low voice.
"I've thought about it, especially so that when he wakes up, he doesn't have an even bigger shock realizing it's been amputated, but..."
"The sepsis is a problem, right?" Shizune sighed. She nodded. "I figured if you hadn't done it, that must be why."
"Until he improves, I wouldn't even try, but it won't hurt to regenerate it in a few days or weeks."
"Okay. Good to know."
"I'll leave several clones here to watch over them," she said. "We can go outside if you like."
Shizune nodded. Seina left a couple of clones as usual: one to stay just in case, and another to be dismissed if something happened. She had discovered early on that if she did it that way, she could send information while keeping any situation under control with the remaining clone.
"They're still stable," Shizune reported as they saw the others waiting for them outside the infirmary. "Nothing changed while you were out. How did it go at the base?"
"We destroyed it and recovered quite a few prisoners. Seina healed them. We have them in special cells," Kakashi-sensei said, leaning against the wall.
"How many living prisoners are we talking about?"
"Approximately 140."
"Wow! I don't know if Tsunade-sama has that many people."
"The interrogation department is going to be very busy," Hayate mused aloud.
"The question is... when can we return to Konoha?" Genma asked, rolling his eyes in boredom.
Kakashi-sensei and Hayate looked at Shizune and Seina with a clear question on their faces.
"They're stable for now. We could notify Tsunade-sama to have a medical team ready just in case," she began, "but I don't think anything would happen if we returned everyone except Natori via hiraishin."
"What's wrong with Natori?"
"He has a brain hematoma. Seina successfully drained the blood from his brain, but she's right to think that hiraishin might affect him."
"In fact, when we arrived here using the hiraishin, I had to resuscitate him for the third time in less than 15 minutes," she answered, surprising Genma, Hayate, and Shizune. "Even so, Kotetsu needs constant attention, so I'd send him back to Konoha as soon as possible."
"Alright... The best course of action would be for you all to return with Seina's help and take everyone except Natori," Kakashi-sensei said, looking at the backup team. "Also, take the scroll with the bodies so they can start examining them. Meanwhile, Seina and I will fly back to Konoha with Natori and the prisoners. If we don't sleep tonight, we should arrive in—"
Seina suddenly straightened up, receiving information from her clone at the same time that they all heard the shouts coming from the infirmary. She appeared beside Mamoru Inuzuka just in time to grab the clawed hand that had knocked out her clone with a punch, claws that he was about to use to slit his own throat. Damn, he was strong! Kakashi-sensei and Genma appeared at her side a millisecond later, pinning him to the bed while Shizune quickly injected a sedative into his neck. He struggled against the hands of both jonin, but soon tired, and the sedative took effect.
She cast a spell to check if he had injured himself before they could stop him. Fortunately, her clone had given them enough time to prevent him from committing suicide. She watched as Kakashi-sensei and Genma tied him to the bed with fuinjutsu cuffs while Shizune healed the puncture wound in a matter of seconds. Hayate, watching over the other patients, observed them from the centre of the infirmary.
"He's going to need to be committed for a while," Genma sighed. "Should we cover his ninken?"
"You should leave now, Shizune. The sooner you reach Konoha, the better."
"Hai."
Seina helped Shizune move the patients. Genma carried Mamoru, Shizune took Kotetsu, and Hayate lifted Yanjirobee. One of her clones handled the hiraishin to return them to Konoha while she focused on moving Natori with a levitation spell outside the tent. Kakashi-sensei packed up the tent and the traps.
"Follow me. I'll find a clearing where you can summon your dragon."
They walked slowly with Natori floating in the air until they reached a more open area. Seina lowered the patient to the ground while summoning her creature. She had to secure him to the dragon's back so he wouldn't move or fall, even though she wasn't going to let that happen. The dragon took off under a disillusionment spell, heading for Konoha.
"What a day," she sighed, realizing that not even a full day had passed since they left the village in search of Yukimura.
"Didn't you want to be a jonin?" Kakashi-sensei asked with a smile, keeping a hand on Natori's shoulder as she did. He extended his other hand to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Luckily, we'll get to Konoha quickly, and then you can sleep as much as you want."
"And you?"
"I'll have to report everything to the Hokage, but it'll only take a few minutes. Shizune is probably already telling her everything."
The rest of the flight, though a bit long, was uneventful. Natori didn't move a muscle while they held onto him, just in case. Kakashi-sensei and she remained silent, relieved that the mission had finally ended after all the setbacks.