Shun and Ryu sat down anxiously on the waiting room chairs. It had been several hours since they had gotten to the hospital. A while after they arrived, they had seen Gramps rush past them, into the room Okumaru had been taken into.
Also, Luna had been taken away to the animal section in the hospital, where she was to be taken care of by the hospitals “best vet.” It seemed that the ‘best vet’ was the only one able to take care of ‘wild animals’.
Hiro had gone to tell the others of what had happened so far.
Soon, a doctor came in through the door, and said, “Ryu Kiryu and Shun Umezawa?”
“Yes?” Ryu stood up.
The doctor went up to Ryu and said, “Your sister is alive, but only a certain medical ninja can help her now.”
“Who?”
“Her name is Lady Tsunade. She is in town. She is in the gambling den next to the Grocery Store.”
Ryu and Okumaru both were gone in a flash, leaving the doctor in a cloud of dust. (How dust came to be in the Hospital was unknown.)
Shun ran behind Ryu struggling to keep up. Kokoro could be saved! He had overheard two nurses talking worriedly to one another.
“Ah, you know that girl that was just brought in? I heard that she might not live! You were tending to her weren’t you?”
“Yes, I was. She had blood all over her body and was in a dreadful state! It also looked as though she had been tortured!”
“Oh, poor thing! She’s a ninja in training you know. I really do wonder at the injuries they come in with sometimes. What chance is there of her surviving, though?”
“Not much of a chance I’m afraid. Oh and the boy who was brought in with her? He was tortured too, but not as much as the girl, very less compared to her, but still! What kind of filth does that to ‘children‘?” Their voices faded as they walked away
Shun had gasped inaudibly when he heard what the nurse said. Kokoro and Okumaru had been tortured?!
Now, as they stopped in front of the gambling den, his heart leaped with the hope that the person who might be able to help Kokoro was just a few feet away.
They walked in, Shun following behind Ryu nervously. He had never been in a gambling den before, and did not know what he would find.
Ryu walked over to the counter and asked the broad shouldered, tough looking man sitting there, “Is Lady Tsunade here? We would like to speak with her.”
The man grinned at them, and said, “She owes ya some cash? To be expected, givin’ her nickname.”
“What nickname?” Shun piped up out of curiosity, peering out from behind Ryu.
“The Legendary…” he paused for a moment for dramatic effect. It worked. Shun leaned forward.
“Loser!” he said, laughing at the expression on their faces.
“She’s terrible at gambling, dunno why she does it, don’t care as long as I get sum cash. Here, she’s out back.”
The large man got up and led them to the back of the shop, where, to earn more money it seems, there was a small restaurant. The man lead them to a table where to young looking woman were sitting. The man stopped in front of them. “Lady Tsunade.”, and left.
Ryu and Shun were both speechless, staring at the two woman. One had black hair and eyes and seemed very petite. On her lap sat a small pig, which oinked at the two boys opposite it. Next to her was a woman who seemed to be in her late twenties or early thirties. She seemed to be about to order, and looked up at the two in annoyance.
“What is it? I don’t seem to remember owing you two any cash.”
Ryu and Shun bowed politely, and Ryu said, “I’m sorry to bother you ma’am, but we have an emergency, that can only be resolved with your help.”
The black haired lady waved for them too sit down, and said, “Let me introduce myself. My name is Shizune, and this is Lady Tsunade. What type of emergency do you have?”
Ryu thanked her, and the two settled down opposite the woman.
Ryu said rapidly, “Hello, my name is Ryu Kiryu, this is Shun Umezawa, we heard of your outstanding medical skill, and that you were in town, and the doctor said only you could help Kokoro, and she’s going to die, and not even Gramps can save her, and can you please help?”
Lady Tsunade got up abruptly, and left the room in a hurry, Shizune following. As Shizune passed the boys, she leaned down and said, “That means yes, come on!”
They had raced to the hospital in a hurry, jumping on the roofs of the houses to get there.
Inside the hospital, Shun led her to Kokoro’s room. In Tsunade went. Lady Tsunade stopped short at the sight of Kokoro, and shivered uncontrollably at the sight of the blood. Shizune shook her, and Lady Tsunade snapped out of it, barking an order to the nurse sitting next to Kokoro.
“Show Shizune your supplies. Shizune get what I need and get it here, NOW!”
The two scrambled and got everything. Lady Tsunade barked out orders quickly and effectively, sending people scurrying here and there. As Lady Tsunade gazed down at the girl’s face and healed her best she could.
Soon, she stepped out of the emergency room, sighed, and leaned against the door, her coat flapping around her. Shun rushed forward, and she grinned at him. “She’s alright, but she’ll be very weak. You won’t be able to visit her much.”
Suddenly, Gramps came out of Okumaru’s room and caught sight of Lady Tsunade.
He walked over to her and bowed respectfully. “Princess Tsunade.”
Shun gaped. Princess?
Lady Tsunade grinned at the old man and said, “Gramps, you old dog, how are you?”
He grinned at her, then at Shizune. “Heh, fine as can be at my old age. Let’s get a drink, after all that work healing the young one, I’m as thirsty as ever.”
Shizune moaned.
Lady Tsunade grinned and walked off with Gramps, the two of the chatting. Shun and Ryu were hugging each other in pure ecstasy behind them, as they told each other of the good news. Okumaru and Kokoro were fine, and so was Luna, who had been taken care of by a vet!.
“So , that fine young man who came to fetch me, Ryu was it, I remember seeing him when he was just a young sprout! What’s this about that young girl being his sister? I heard of what happened to his family.”
“Ah yes.” Gramps said soberly. “He found her next to the river, her memory completely forgotten, and ever since we’ve been taking care of her. She‘s just been pure mischief, good for me and Ryu.”
“Ah, really? So what happened to her? She had some serious injuries on her.”
As Gramps explained all that to Lady Tsunade (Shizune trotted along behind, throwing an occasional question in), Shun and Ryu were both begging the nurse to see Kokoro.
“No! She’s just been moved to a new room!”
“We won’t make a sound, we just want to see her, then Okumaru!”
“Alright, but let me explain to you what kind of a condition she’s in.”
After the nurse explained, the two were let in. They tiptoed to the side of her bead, and looked down at her face slowly. She was pale, and her eyes were closed. Her mouth was pulled up into a small frown, and she looked so vulnerable that Shun felt a strange emotion rush through him, and he straightened up suddenly and looked away. Ryu looked at him with surprise. Shun beckoned to Ryu, and Ryu nodded, and glanced one last time at Kokoro, and they left.
Okumaru seemed much better than Kokoro, he was stirring, and as they watched, he opened his eyes to gaze up at them blearily.
“Ryu?” His voice became stronger. “Where am I? Where’s Kokoro?”
Ryu spoke softly, as to not agitate Okumaru. “You’re in the hospital, Okumaru. You’re hurt. Kokoro’s alright.”
Okumaru gazed up at them sadly. “I was unable to protect Kokoro. Kane tortured her, he beat her to the point of death, and I couldn’t help her! I couldn’t save her! And all the while she was blaming herself for all that, I could see it in her eyes, in her face when she looked at me!”
Okumaru’s voice had risen hysterically, and a nurse rushed over, and spoke soothingly to him, while slipping a needle into his skin.
“It’s alright, Okumaru.” Once he was asleep, she glared at them furiously.
“Out. Out! Now.”
They left, quietly digesting what Okumaru had told them. Kane? Who was he? And why would those two be tortured?
Back at Ryu’s house, the two sat at the table, and talked.
“Kane.” Said Ryu contemplatively. “Maybe Lady Tsunade and Gramps will know something of him. Now about them being tortured. Shun, what do you think anyone would torture someone to get info of?”
“Well,” began Shun. “You know the drug traces Gramps found on the trail? You know how Gramps said that animals would not be able to cope with it?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, this guy, Kane, he probably used this drug upon the three of them, and both Kokoro and Luna would not have reacted well to it, right?”
“Oh, I know what you’re getting to! You are one smart kid. Kane would have seen Kokoro not react well to it, then he would have done some tests on them, and found out about Kokoro’s tiger blood, and stuff. Then, he would have wanted to find out more, and asked Kokoro. For some reason, Kokoro probably didn’t tell him, and to get it out of her, he would have tortured her!”
“Yeah! But why would he torture Okumaru? He wouldn’t have known that Okumaru knew about it, so what was his reason for torturing him? And why would he mostly only torture Kokoro and not Okumaru?”
“I think that maybe he tortured Okumaru so that Kokoro would spill the beans. Oh, poor Kokoro! No wonder Okumaru was talking about her blaming herself for Okumaru getting hurt! Oh, that poor kid! It’s a good thing she killed Kane herself, or I would have ripped him from limb to limb, just for touching her, then I would have skinned him and-” Ryu was interrupted in his ‘fascinating’ (note the sarcasm) description of the torture he would inflict upon Kane by a loud knock on the door. He went and opened the door, and let Gramps, Lady Tsunade, and Shizune in.
They sat down at the table and Ryu asked Lady Tsunade and Shizune whether they would like some tea, and set about making some.
Lady Tsunade looked seriously at Shun and said, “Hello Shun. Nice to meet you. Me and your father go way back.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I remember him when he was as old as you!”
Shun looked (quite openly) surprised. “Wow you must be ‘really’ old!” He blurted out before he could stop himself.
Tsunade’s eye twitched and soon Shun had a rather large bump on his head.
Ryu set the cups down in front of everyone and told them what they had figured out so far.
“- and we were wondering whether you knew anything about this ‘Kane’ fellow.”
“Nope.” said Gramps frankly, shaking his head.
Lady Tsunade tapped a finger against her cheek, and said, “I ‘do’ remember a Kane, don’t you Shizune?”
She turned to Shizune who had been quiet until now.
Shizune looked up, and the pig oinked in surprise.
“Um, yes, I do actually. We heard of him in a village a couple of months ago. He was a renown scientist who was quite cruel. Scientist and cruel don’t actually go together very well, since he began to blatantly do life threatening experiments upon people. Soon he was sought after by the police, and had to flee. He used to hang about with the worst sort of people, and was known for killing off his enemies. He was actually quite crazy. Poor child, being stuck with him as her jailor. What horrors she must have experienced!”
They were all quite for a while, then Lady Tsunade told them how to take care of Kokoro, and what state she would be after she woke.
“She won’t wake up for a couple of days. We’ll be staying here, so hopefully we’ll be able to meet her!”
The next four days passed with numerous visitors by Kokoro’s bedside. Ryu went everyday. So did Shun, spending time with all three of them. On the third day, Luna was moved to Kokoro’s room.
Finally, on the fourth day’s night, Lady Tsunade said that Kokoro might wake up. Shun spent the whole night with her. The next morning he was really pissed off at Lady Tsunade.
Shun washed his hands at the hospital bathroom, and then his face. He looked at his reflection in the mirror, and grinned at the white-haired, baggy-eyed, tired looking boy who stared back. Shun wiped his hands on a paper towel, and proceeded to Kokoro’s room. The pale girl was ’really’ enjoying her sleep, wasn’t she? He sighed. “When was she going to wake up? She was making him so worried!’
He “Hi”ed the nurse and went inside and sat next to Kokoro, rubbing his eyes tenderly. He heard something move on the bed and froze.
Shun slowly looked up and saw Kokoro, her black eyes open and grinning weakly at him. He couldn’t help himself. He squealed a squeal that would haunt his nightmares and make him blush when he thought about it later on and jumped onto her and hugged her to him tightly. She was finally awake!
From outside the window, Ryu peered in at Shun and Kokoro, and turned to Hiro.
“Think he’ll crush her to death before she has a chance to speak?”
Hiro grinned. “Hah, he sure likes her. Better watch out Ryu.”
Ryu looked up ,surprised, at Hiro. “What the hell do you mean by that!?”
Hiro smiled and Ryu’s eye twitched, and he punched Hiro.
“Baka.” Ryu muttered.
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Chapter notes: Hey!
Yay, quick update! Please forgive me, though, if this chapter seems a little fuzzy/wierd... I had writer's headache until yesterday....
I would like to thank Bre2k8 for her constant reviews and her names, and i would als o like to thank crazykittylover for her constant reviews as well!
And, thank YOU for reading this story thus far, and please stick with me till the faaar away end!
I would also like to thank my sweet kitty for completely messing up half of this chapter as i was writing it!
He gave me ideas for the next few chapters...
So, please enjoy and please review!
Arigato, thank you, Gracias!
Kitty: Show off.
Me: blushes) No I'm not!