Stripped Bare (kakashiXsakura)

chapter 23

Kakashi took in the scene before him: tables full of sharpened medical instruments and beakers full of assorted liquids were arranged in the center of the room. Two girls dressed in nurses outfits that seemed better suited to bedroom role play were staring at him blankly, their lack of surprise proving that they were more of Iyashii's walking dead. A dark haired man in a lab coat hovered over some cots at the far end of the room but it was what was on the cots that really had Kakashi's attention.

Four women lay motionless, all with IVs piercing their arms, but rather than a clear solution, something far more sinister was being pumped into their veins. The liquid was a soft shimmering green, no doubt liquid chakra somehow condensed down and mixed with other chemicals. This must be the treatment that drained out the free will of a woman and replaced her soul with the program to obey every command of her master.

There was a girl he didn't recognize, but he could clearly pick out Tsurenai, Miyabi and Sakura. Seeing her like that, helpless when she was normally so strong and capable, only threw wood on the fire of his already burning rage.

He stormed into the room with only one thought. He had to get that needle out of Sakura's arm and get her out of here. He only hoped he wasn't too late and that Sakura's personality remained intact when she opened her eyes...if she opened her eyes.

The man in the lab coat turned as he finished his inspection, only to come face to face with the furious shinobi. His eyes bulged behind the magnifying lenses of his glasses as he gasped in surprise. His shock quickly turned to terror when his eyes looked past Kakashi to see the bloody remains of his master just beyond the door.

"Who are you?" the doctor whimpered, voice growing high and thin with panic. He had nowhere to run with the silver haired man standing between him and the door and his eyes darted around nervously as he searched for a way out.

"I'm the guy you don't want to piss off," Kakashi seethed, advancing slowly on the frightened man. "And since you've gotten my partner involved in your filthy operation, I'm feeling pretty pissed off."

His prey made a pitiful attempt to grab at scalpel on a nearby tray, but Kakashi easily grabbed his wrist painfully tight.

"Girls! Help me!" he wailed, squirming futilely in the shinobi's grasp.

In response to his cries, dull eyes turned from their tasks to fix on the intruder. One picked up a pair of medical scissors and the other an especially large scalpel. Both woman moved toward him quickly with brandished weapons, but their faces conveyed no more emotion than when he had first entered the room.

Kakashi's grip changed from the doctor's wrist to his throat as he slammed him up against the wall with one hand. The first girl that came at him, a pretty blonde, received a kick to the stomach that had her small form reeling backward. She hit her head on the corner of the center island holding various beakers of mysterious liquids and did not get back up. The second he was able to stun with a half powered punch to her flawless face, making her drop her scissors as she instinctively clutched her bleeding nose as she turned away from him. A strike to the back of her neck had the brunette dropping to the floor like a stone, as motionless as the first girl.

Kakashi turned his attention back to his captive and stopped his struggles by tightening his grip on his throat. The shinobi was barely containing his rage, resisting tearing this man's heart right out of his chest only because the deranged doctor still had information to give. As soon as Kakashi found out what he needed to know, the man was as good as dead.

He drew the kunai from his pouch that had so recently killed the master of the estate, his eyes narrowing dangerously as he pressed the blade to the doctor's throat. The man began to wheeze and whimper, eyes wide behind glass lenses as he stuttered out pleas for his life to be spared.