Takashi! No!
Taichi!
PAIN!
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Youko gasped and jerked awake, her eyes wide with fear. Taichi! Takashi! Kurou-Sensei!
Her eyes darted wildly around the room. Where was she? Where were her teammates?
She struggled to throw the light blanket from her, but her arms were unresponsive. What happened? Why wouldn’t her arms work? Where was she??
The door flew open and a woman in white darted in. “Youko! It’s ok! You’re safe!”
Youko panted, staring wild-eyed at the woman…the doctor, she realized suddenly…and then sagged back into the bed. The hospital bed. She recognized it now, as the nightmare smoke cleared from her mind. The hospital at the village hidden in the leaves.
She felt the illusion of strength fueled by terror slide away, leaving behind terrible, sapping pain. A whimper escaped her, despite her best efforts, and the doctor quickly raised a glass to her lips.
“Drink this, it will help the pain.”
Youko obediently drank it all, gagging a little on the bitter taste. Once she’d swallowed the last, she felt the darkness of exhaustion slipping over her. With one final, massive effort, she cleared her throat and managed to gasp out, “what happened to the others?”
The doctor didn’t answer, but her sorrow-filled face followed Youko into the darkness of sleep.
........
“It’s time we introduced ourselves, I think. I’ll go first. I’m Beganan Kurou, and I’ll be your sensei. I like..hmm…rainstorms and a good book. Ok, it’s your turn.”
Youko glanced shyly sideways at the two boys she’d been teamed with. The taller of the two gave Kurou-sensei a grin and crossed his arms over his chest. “My name’s Takashi. I like knives.” He grinned wider, and Kurou smiled wryly back at him.
“Ok. That’s probably a useful talent. Next?”
“I’m Taichi.” The short boy glared at them, daring them to make fun of his name. “I like fighting and the idea of being a full fledged Shinobi some day.”
Kurou laughed and shrugged. “Ok. And last but not least…”
“I’m Youko. Uhm..I like…” she hesitated, then sighed. “I like music, and reading.” She gave Kurou a shy smile, and he smiled back encouragingly.
“Well, that’s enough for today. You three should go get something to eat, and get to know each other better. We’ll start training tomorrow.”
........
“Stay down!”
Kurou gestured fiercely for them to remain concealed, and Youko pressed herself tighter against the ground. Somewhere, hidden in the rocks around them, were a group of bandits that had been preying on the local villages. They’d been tracking them for two days, and they’d finally found them, but the bandits had faded back into the hills.
“Alright.” Kurou slid down to where the three genin were hiding. “I think I know where they all are. I’m going to go out and try to draw their attention to me. When I give you the signal, you three go into action.”
Taichi gave Kurou a keen look. “The , Tai-You-Tak, Kurou-sensei?”
Kurou grinned and ruffled his hair. “Yup. Try and get as many of them as possible. I’ll clean it up from there.”
They all nodded. Over the last nine months of working together, they’d perfected a triple-attack move that combined all three of their best jutsus into one very effective area attack. Taichi had named it, and it had stuck.
Kurou gave them all one last grin and then sprang from hiding, landing precisely in the center of the dusty road. “Hey! You morons! The villages have had enough of your crap. Come out and take your medicine like good little children!”
There was laughter from the rocks, and then the bandits came out of hiding. There were more than Youko had anticipated. She glanced at Taichi, who was watching Kurou-sensei tensely, waiting for the signal. Can we get them all, she wondered fretfully. Or enough, she reminded herself. We just have to get enough.
The bandits were mocking Kurou, hurling insults that made Youko’s ears burn. Kurou was responding in kind, albeit in a considerably more refined way.
Finally, he goaded them into action. As the bandits sprang, he dropped to the ground and shouted “Now!”
The three of them jumped up, their hands flying.
Taichi first. His hands flashed signs, and he grimaced as he released his jutsu. The water jutsu pulled every bit of water from the surrounding air and flung it at the bandits, a hard wave that slammed into their surprised faces. Many of them were bowled backward by the force of the wave.
Youko was already finishing her jutsu. She flashed the final signal and released her chakra. The water called by Taichi instantly froze into waves of sparkling ice, trapping the now confused and frightened bandits in frozen, dangerously sharp cages.
Hard on her jutsu, Takashi finished his last sign and slammed his hands together, his face tight and intense. There was a moment of silence, and then the sparkling cages of ice suddenly exploded into a massive cloud of deadly, flying daggers of ice. Linyuki and Taichi finished the deadly combination, their fingers flying almost in unision. Then they slapped their hands together, combining their efforts.
Their chakras combined to form a solid, transparent dome over the mass of flying ice and screaming bandits, effectively trapping the hapless bandits in a hell of death. Not incidentally, the shield also kept the flying ice trapped inside, ensuring that neither they nor any other teammates or innocents were struck by the deadly missiles.
Takashi sagged against a rock, gasping. It required a great deal of chakra to explode the ice that way; Kurou-sensei assured him that he would eventually be able summon more chakra so he wouldn’t be completely wiped out after using it. For now, however, Taichi and Youko moved to flank him, keeping their hands joined but slipping kunai knives into their free hands, ready to defend their teammate while he caught his breath.
However, there proved to be nothing to defend him against. The few bandits who had not been caught in the Tai-You-Tak had not survived Kurou’s follow-up. At Kurou’s nod, Taichi and Youko let the shield fade and slipped their knives back into their sheathes.
“Well. Once again, that proved very effective.” Youko kept her eyes from the tangled, bloody mess that had once been the bandits as they moved to join Kurou on the road. “Good job, you three. Combining three relatively weak jutsus into such a powerful technique shows me how well you’ve learned to work with your teammates. I’m very proud of you.”
Taichi beamed, and Takashi managed a shaky smile. Youko smiled, but she was, as she had been before, troubled. This was only the second time they’d used the Tai-You-Tak in battle. Both times the killing had been necessary, but still…
“Come on. We need to get back and report. Maybe we’ll get a day off..”
Taichi laughed and helped Takashi stand up. “Kurou-sensei, you always say that!’
Youko followed them, still trying to work out her tangled feelings.
..........
“Will she be alright?”
The doctor sighed and rubbed her arms, looking down at the girl in the bed. She looked so young, so fragile, lying against the white sheets. “I think so, Lord Hokage. We stopped the bleeding and I don’t think the wound will become infected. It’s mostly shock, I think, and loss of blood that’s kept her under so long.”
The Hokage sighed and folded his arms behind him, clasping his hands together. “Good, good.”
Kakashi had reported as soon as he’d deposited her into the hospital. They knew who was responsible for the killing, but it was a tricky situation.
Officially, the village where this Talnata operated was outside of their jurisdiction, lying within the Sand. And with the treaty with the Sand village so new and fragile, they could not just go stomping in there to wipe out the man who’d killed a jounin and two genin, dispite what the fact that they wanted to very badly.
I wish I knew, the Hokage thought angrily, if this Talnata is a rogue or if he’s allied with the sand village somehow…
He’d never heard of a Talnata, and neither had anyone the Hokage had questioned. The implications were troubling, that someone obviously so powerful had thus far managed to avoid any outside attention so well…
He sighed again and turned to leave, patting the doctor’s arm on the way out.
...........
Youko struggled out of troubled, pain-fogged dreams where Takashi and Kurou took turns throwing rocks at her while Taichi pulled her hair and giggled madly. Blinking, she struggled to sit up.
A hand stopped her; she gasped in surprise. She hadn’t noticed anyone was there.
It was her old teacher, Masaru-sensei, from school. He gave her a gentle smile and firmly pushed her back against the pillows. “Not yet, Youko. You’re still very sick, and you need to let your body rest.”
She stared at him a moment, blankly. Her mind felt thick with fog, as sluggish and unresponsive as her body. After a moment, Masaru reached down and gently brushed the hair from her forehead. “Head feel funny?”
Youko nodded cautiously, and Masaru smiled reassuringly. “Yeah, I know. I don’t like those drugs much either. But it’s good; you need the rest, and they’ll help you not hurt as much. You’ll feel funny for a while, but don’t worry. You’ll be as good as new, eventually.”
Youko licked her dry lips, and Masaru reached out to snare a glass from the table by the bed. “Here, drink this.”
She sipped the cold water. Not only did her mind feel funny, but she also realized that she couldn’t feel the pain she should be feeling about her teammate’s death. It seemed distant, somehow. Unimportant. She thought about it for a moment, and then sighed. The drugs, she realized. The drugs made it impossible to feel anything strongly. She was drifting again, and Masaru reached out to take the glass from her hands.
“Sleep, Youko. We’ll be here if you wake. Don’t worry. Just sleep.”
She obediently closed her eyes and the darkness rose to claim her.
............
Whenever Youko woke, there was always someone there to soothe her nightmares, give her cold water to drink, and force pain medicine down her throat. Sometimes she woke with tears streaming down her face; once she woke and her throat was so raw and sore she realized she must have been shouting. But the people who were there when she woke only firmly but gently repeated the same advice: sleep and heal.
She didn’t realize it, but they weren’t there just to do those things. The shock and trauma she had suffered were bound to leave their mark; her dreams told them what her mind was suffering. They were there to make sure that, when she woke clearly, there was someone there to help her. They didn’t dare leave her to wake on her own.
.........
Taichi threw his hands up in disgust and Youko sat down heavily, tired beyond reason. They’d all been training so hard. Takashi was slumped on the ground, barely able to lift his head.
“Why can’t I get this to work?” mourned Taichi. “I’ve been trying for three days. Why won’t it work?”
Youko pushed her bangs from her sweaty forehead and looked thoughtfully at Taichi. “I don’t know. You had enough chakra that time; I could see it. Maybe you’re just too tired to focus right now?”
Taichi groaned and rubbed his head. “Probably. How long we been at it?”
“Too long.” Kurou startled them all, appearing out of thin air to glare disapprovingly at them. “I thought I told you three to take a break while I was gone.”
Youko, long over her shyness when it came to her teammates and sensei, gave Kurou a cheeky grin and shrugged. “We did rest, the fist two days, but then we got bored. We wanted to have this down by the time you got home, though.”
Kurou looked at the three of them and sighed. “Well, come on. You all need to eat and rest. Really, Takashi, what were you doing that drained your chakra so thoroughly?”
Takashi shrugged as Kurou-sensei reached down to pull him to his feet. “Prism jutsu” he mumbled.
Kurou sighed again and ruffled his hair. “Ah. That one. You know, I never should have showed you that one. I’m not sure your chakra network is ready to handle it.”
Taichi slipped under Takashi’s other arm and staggered a bit as he took Takashi’s weight on his shoulders. “Uhm. At least he can do it. I still can’t get the water to come right. Half the time I just make it a little misty.”
Kurou laughed and patted Youko on the head. “I know. But you’ll get it. I have enormous faith in all three of you. I think that you’re all going to be excellent Shinobi some day. Just don’t try and rush it so much, will ya? You make me look like a slacker.”
Their laughter blended together under the trees. Kurou gestured for them to head back to the village. “Let’s go eat before Taichi wastes away to nothing.”
“Hey!”
..............
Youko, still shaky from her long confinement, leaned carefully against the pole and watched the river slip by under her. The day promised to be warm; it was barely past dawn and already her shirt was uncomfortably damp.
Not too far away, Masaru sat slumped on a bench, occasionally yawning. He’d been the one, when he arrived at the hospital to find her awake and restless, to suggest a walk. But he’d been doing double duty teaching and watching her and she could tell he was exhausted.
She turned her attention back to the river, loosing herself in its quicksilver flashing. It had been three weeks now, and her body was finally beginning to heal itself. Too bad her mind and soul were still so damaged.
She still had horrible nightmares, but they’d finally begun to fade when she woke, so she didn’t remember all of the details. Only that they’d been there again, and that she was still alone when she woke up.
Youko sighed, laying her cheek on the rough wooden pole. Of course, that was being maudlin. She wasn’t alone-that’s what all of her teachers had been showing her, by staying by her side while she was ill. She wasn’t alone; she would never be alone, as long as she was of the Leaf village. But, oh, she missed them so much…She kept expecting Taichi to walk around the corner, or thinking of how Takashi would laugh at something that she’d seen, only to remember they were gone. They’d become so close, so quickly, like siblings, a team, friends…
Tears pricked her eyes and she closed them, fiercely willing the tears away. Shinobi do not cry for their fallen comrades, she thought angrily. Shinobi do not cry. But it would be so nice to cry.
She was so absorbed in her inner struggle that she didn’t hear him arrive, but he made a kind of coughing noise to alert her to his presence. Opening her eyes, she glanced sideways at The Hokage, who was staring down at the river.
“Good morning, Youko. How are you feeling today?”
She sighed and forced herself to smile at him. “Better, Lord Hokage. My body’s starting to heal, I think. I’ll need to start training again soon, to get my strength back.”
He put his hands in his pockets and tipped his head to the side. “As long as you take it easy at first, I think that’s a good idea.”
She nodded, staring down at the river. Training…without them. It was a difficult thing to consider, but she knew she had to do it. That, or give up her dream of becoming a Shinobi…
..........
Hokage looked sideways at her, seeing the pain tightening her so-young face. So young, he thought sadly. So young to face this, but it came to everyone who walked the path of the ninja at some time.
How would she cope, he wondered. For some, the pain was too much. Those gave up their dream and faded into the background, forever hiding and empty. He thought she had too much strength for that, however.
So. Would the pain eat her from the inside, making her shut down and become as cold and withdrawn as the ice she controlled? He hoped not. What little he’d learned about her indicated that she had a very bright spirit, and to see it broken beyond repair would hurt him.
He watched her sigh and smooth her face, wondering. Could she survive this?
Behind them, Masaru snorted and came back to full wakefulness, blinking rapidly. Despite himself, the Hokage grinned at the slightly befuddled look on his big, blunt face. Strong, ever patient Masaru, one of the best teachers in the Village Hidden in the Leaves.
“Good morning, Lord Hokage.” Masaru stretched and yawned face-creakingly. “Youko, are you ready to go back inside yet?”
Youko turned and smiled at Masaru, and the Hokage experienced a fleeting, disconcerting flash of…what? Future promise, he realized suddenly. Youko’s smile was going to be the source of many a young man’s fantasy when she got older. That thought made him much more cheerful. If she could manage to survive this pain and move on, there was a lot in store for her.
She stopped and glanced back at the Hokage, and in her eyes, the Hokage saw the promise of the future, only slightly shaded by the pain of the past. “I’ll be ok, Lord Hokage.”
As Masaru assisted her back to the hospital, the Hokage watched them go, smiling.
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Chapter notes: I don't own Naruto.