Under My Skin

Chapter 25

"Sakura?"

"Sensei." She bowed to him as he walked through the door of the Hokage's office. She clutched onto the papers pressed into her chest as she looked back up to him. Shikamaru stood next to her as his entrance interrupted their discussion. The men nodded to each other wordlessly as Kakashi leaned onto his desk looking at the two in front of him. His arms folded as he began to speak.

"Proceed,"

"I analysed the results of the tests on Akari." She held out the report and he took it with a single hand and flipped it open. He scanned the contents finding Sakura's perfectly neat handwriting covering the front page. "I immediately noticed the immense amount of Chakra she had but I wasn't sure of the affect it would have on her body. After the few tests I ran I realised that she is suffering from it. Much like Naruto did with the Nine-tails chakra. The force is too immense and it is killing her." Sakura's voice remained even and professional as she relayed the information. Kakashi could feel Shikamaru's gaze burning through him but his eyes remained on the document at hand. It wasn't anything more than he had learned from Akari not half an hour ago.

"You don't seem surprised," Shikamaru spoke after a short silence.

"Akari just told me as much," he sighed closing the paper folder. He extended it back to Sakura who took it reluctantly and Kakashi finally looked up to the pair. They looked at him expectantly.

"She's has only a few weeks unless we find a way to slow it down." Sakura tone morphed into something determined.

"She told me that the Otsutsuki side of her was suppressed most of her life due to a seal placed on her. Once that was broken the suppressed power that came with it is now destroying her if she remains on this plain. The human side of her cant contain it." He resisted rubbing his face and stared at the two of them.

"Is she unable to return to a plain which she can remain unharmed?" Sakura asked.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. She seems certain that she is staying in this plain. She claims to have 'found peace' with it."

"I don't understand why she is willing to die to be here." Sakura's face morphed into confusion at the notion.

"She wants to protect Konoha she claims. It is where her loyalties lie." Kakashi didn't want to admit that he felt defensive about it. He needed to be the Hokage. Not some love sick 23 year old.

"And you believe her?" Shikmaru probed.

"I would believe it from the Akari I once knew. Now, I'm not so sure. I don't know this Akari." It was an honest answer.

"From the analysis, I don't know how she is still functioning. Most people would be bed ridden from the pain alone. I think it was from the pain that she collapsed previously." Sakura sighed and began scanning the documents in her hand. Kakashi didn't want to think of Akari being in pain and he pushed it down and crossed his arms tighter.

"What do we do about this?" Shikamaru asked Kakashi what he planned to do out of courtesy.

"Monitor her as we originally planned. We will need to get Ino and see if we can extract and relay her memories so we can gather information. It will be the cleanest way to get proof of her intentions too. If everything proves OK we can take her word as truth with anything else she says."

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Kakashi spent the next few days denying himself of any thoughts of Akari. He began the process of trying to separate the current Akari from the one in his past. He has inundated himself with work and actually managed to clear his desk for the first time in perhaps ever?