Several miles away from the running duo a young woman cloaked in a thick black cloak that covered bright blue and green robes was moving the best she could with a small belt pack she had created out of the lower hem of the outer robe she had been wearing. No water, no food, only a couple candles, matches, and a small variety of incence that had dropped with her into this strange land. She was grateful for the small blessing that her cloak had a full hood, giving her a brief respite from the deadly sun above her. Yet still she was losing water out of her body quickly and she knew that if she wanted to survive into the evening, she had to find water. Staying where she was was not an option, so she had picked a direction and started walking, not knowing that it would bring her closer to her rescuers.
Soon, the ninja pair were well within range of being able to detect what it was that had disturbed their leader. What they could not sense was its power, but they, like most people that lived in that country could read the environment and what it told them was whatever was there was not native to their lands. It was this fact that made the decision for them that they should hurry. They had been moving since morning trying to pinpoint where this power was, and now that they had the range of it, they could now find it that much easier.
The sun had beaten her to a fine pulped state. Without water to help her keep going, Hoshiwara had finally reached the end of her endurance. Her head pounded from the dehydration and her body kept giving out on her at regular intervals. Now, she had fallen for the last time. She didn't have the strength or focus to be able to get back up, her only saving grace, or curse depending on how she was thinking at the moment was that when she had fallen, it was face down so her cloak covered her from most of the sun's harsh rays.
Temari and Kankurou soon spotted what had disturbed the sands. At first it looked to be a black pool in the bright reflective sands. However as they closed in on it, they realized that it was a cloak, and it was covering a human body. Temari abandoned all sense of restraint as she dashed to the body, hoping that if it was a friend that it was still alive, and if it was an enemy, she'd be grateful that the desert had taken care of it for them.
Turning the body over, she learned from the groan of pain that it was alive, and as the hood fell back that the owner of the cloak was female. This was the power that they had been sent out to retrieve? "Kankurou, she's still alive, but barely. We need to get her tended to before we take her back to the village."
The young man carefully stepped over to see the young woman that had dropped in on them and was surprised to see that she was not as sunburned as he thought someone unaccustomed to the desert would be after spending this much time out on the sands. Instead she was only a light pink, but also flushed from dehydration and heat stroke. quickly he pulled a water canteen out and a cloth and started in on the basic first aid all sand ninjas knew for caring for those out in the heat.
Temari had also started first aid, quietly and carefully drizzling water into the girl's mouth while her brother blotted her skin in the shade of Temari's now fully extended fan. Both were worried that the woman wouldn't make it until they heard a very soft groan of pain from her. Barely audible over the winds that were now starting to signal the onslaught of a sand storm.
Picking the woman up, Kankurou waited for Temari to finish picking up her equipment and both of them took off at their best pace, being careful not to jar the woman as they made the bee line for the desert village that was their home. They had just barely made it into the village, the great doors slamming shut behind them to block out the greater portions of the sand storm that was now picking up intensity. Kankurou handed his burdon off to Temari and the siblings split. One to the hospital to get the woman treated for the heat she had suffered and the other to the Kazekage's office to report what they had found and the end results.
It was three days later when the nursing staff of the hospital noticed a change in their mystery patient. Relief was the primary emotion around the place as it meant that not only would the patient survive, but she'd also be able to give their now highly irritable Kazekage answers as to how she got here in the first place. The woman was wakening and as her eyes opened blearily, she looked around the room she was in, she hoped to find something that would tell her where she was. But all she could see were fuzzy shapes against a light background.
Bringing her hand up to rub at her eyes she noticed that there was something that pulled against the back of her hand as she tried to close her hand to knuckle the crud out of her eyes. More cautious than was her normal want, she brought up her other hand to try and figure out what it was that was preventing her from fisting her right hand. To her surprise she felt wide strip of adhesive as well as a bit of tubing that seemed to flow into her hand. 'An IV? What the hell happened to me?'
"You are awake now?" A baratone male voice spoke from another part of the room. Hoshiwara had absolutely no idea what he had said, but heard the lilt at the end that she normally associated with a question.
:Who's there?: She asked, looking around again, cursing her blurred vision for imparing her ability to see who it was that was in the room with her.
A sigh was the responce to her question. She had an idea now that if she could not understand the person in the room, he could not understand her as well. Her dark blue eyes darted around the room until a hand touched the back of her right hand, showing her that the large dark blur on that side of the bed was a person. Looking over towards the person she carefully brought her left hand up to rub at her eyes a little, noticing that her hand felt like sand paper to her eyelids, she eased up the pressure, opting instead to try and gently brush the crud out to clear up her vision. It worked to a degree, and she could see that the person next to her wore a strange outfit and dark purple face paint. Curiosity warred with fear as she wondered if he was there to hurt her or if he was there to help.
Kankurou read the fear and curiosity in the woman's eyes and raised his hands carefully in what he hoped was a gesture that would ease the fear that was now tightening up the woman's muscles. He had to find out something, anything about her so that the Kazekage wouldn't go into a meeting with her blind. Keeping his eyes on her, he brought one hand to his chest and spoke carefully. "Kankurou"
The woman looked at him strangely as he made the motions and then spoke only one word. Understanding lit her face as she looked him in the eye and brought her own hand to her chest in a mimic of the gesture and said one word, something he was hoping was her name. :Hoshiwara:
Kankurou smiled slightly, at least they had understood each other to this point. Hopefully they would be able to build on this so that the inevitable question and answer session that was coming up tomorrow would be easier on both sides. He watched her again as she brought her unbound hand up to gesture the room, her eyes following her hand as if to ask where she was. :Where am I?: The question followed the action, and a repete of the action followed the question to emphasize it.
Kankurou was stuck now. How could he make her understand that she was in a hospital and had been very sick for the last three days since they had found her out on the sands? Looking down at her hand he had a minor inspiration that he hoped would work. Guiding her eyes down to the IV line in her hand, he then directed her gaze along the line until she saw the pouch that had been steadily replenishing the lost fluids in her body. "You are in a hospital."
Hoshiwara followed his gestures, and as he spoke she took note of the sterility of the room, and the divider curtain that split the room in half now that her vision was clearing up some more. :A Hospital.: She nodded slightly trying to get across that she understood to a greater or lesser degree where she was. This language barrier was going to be a pain.
Kankurou noted that she was starting to calm down again, apperently content with what she had found out. But he also noted that she was struggling to move, to sit up. He knew that the doctor wouldn't be happy with her moving this soon, but he figured that her sitting up would probably help her to clear her head and see what was going on about her. He grabbed a couple pillows from the storage cabinate in the room and propped then up to help balance her as she sat, then helped her to sit up and back up to the pillows that were now stacked behind her.
Once she was sitting, he noticed the braid that her hair was in to keep it out of the way reached down to the bed and pooled a little. He also noticed that the woman now looked more composed now that she was sitting up and could see what was going on. Standing he noted that she had startled slightly but her eyes had a look that spoke that she wasn't a complete stranger to violence. Instead of agetating her he smiled again. "Hoshiwara, I have to speak with the doctor, I will be back."
They both knew that she could not understand what he had just said. But the tone he had put his words into and the slight emphasis on her name seemed to reassure her that she was not going to be harmed. His hand gestures seemed to indicate that he would return in a short time and so she nodded with a slight smile, one liberally laced with gratitude.
As Kankurou stepped out of the room he saw that his sister was already talking with the doctor that had been assigned to care for the woman. He could only assume that she had been outside the door ready to switch watch with him when Hoshiwara woke up and had instead let him initiate contact while she went to inform the doctor about the most recent developement. Stepping up to the two he nodded. "Well talking to her is going to be interesting, she doesn't speak a word of our language." He opened with before continuing. "Its going to take time and effort to understand each other, but I don't think that she'll hurt anyone. I was able to get her name, it's Hoshiwara." The name was oddly accented, proving that he had been listening closely to her when she had said it to ensure that he was repeting it correctly.
Temari nodded, hopefully they would be able to teach each other enough of their respective languages to make communicating easier. Thinking about it she came up with an idea and gesture for her brother and the doctor to come closer. "I think it would be best if we started exchanging information. Starting with breaking down this language barrier. It might be difficult, but I think that if we start with some picture books or something like that, we'll be able to use the pictures to start on the communication."
Temari's idea was sound and the doctor had no reason to deny the activity since it was not physically strenuous. That and getting this woman to learn their language or vise versa would help the doctors in the long run in treating her now and in the future. "You may also want to bring Lord Gaara in on these little exchanges of information." The doctor also suggested. "That way he won't have to have a translator when he decides to question her about her origins." Temari nodded, glancing at Kankurou she noticed that he was ready to take on another shift and so with a slight wave she left to gather their brother and a large stack of picture books.
Over the next few weeks Hoshiwara was released from the hospital, but was carefully watched by several of the Suna ninja. Gaara had laid out specific instructions that if she were to come to harm while in their care, heads would roll, and the village had no reason to not believe that threat. It is said that with the lack of age, comes the greater ability to learn languages. This was also proven to be true when Gaara proved to be the most adept at learning the woman's native language. However it was proving difficult to get abstract ideas across, so questioning each other yet about things like where she had come from couldn't be done.
What surprised everyone was while most people in and around Suna feared or respected the Kazekage, the woman treated him as an equal and refused to allow herself to be treated as a subordinate. Most chalked this up to the fact that she did not know his past, others thought she was just as peculiar and dangerous as the Kazekage, despite the fact that she had never raised her hand to anyone. There was just something about her that commanded the respect of the people around her, benign in nature, but ultimately dangerous if crossed.
Gaara could respect that. In fact it make him more at ease around the woman that she had this ability. However when the two were in public it was business as usual, no one but the strange woman knew that the kazekage was actually in a state of 100 respect for the woman that walked beside him as he guarded her on her daily walk through the Suna market. He did not have to do this and could have assigned any number of ninja to guard her. But he was trying to learn about her culture, her language. So he would go with her in the mornings before his work as the leader of the ninjas in this country caught up with him and tied him down to the office.
Gaara knew that this girl understood far more than she let on. She seemed to hold secrets that only she understood and it was part of the mistique that shrouded her. However her command of their language was improving and while she still needed to hunt for the right words fairly often to keep from making a mistake, she showed herself to be quite intelligent and wise.
He knew that her conversations with himself and his siblings ranged over a variety of topics. Politics, tactics, peace time events and most recently she was starting to settle into the Suna way of life and was now becoming curious about the countries surrounding them. It had been more than six months since she had come to Suna, and she was quickly becoming a fixture in everyone's daily lives. Children liked her because she'd play childish games with them. Older children who were in the schools and just past graduation would go to her for advice on relationships, or for encouragement when they were having a moment of identity crises. Adults too went to her to talk and visit, or to gain some of her strange insight into the problems in their lives. Hoshiwara seemed to have a knack of being able to get anyone to open up to her.
It was about a week later that Gaara called her up to his office. Escorted by Temari and Kankurou she found that the guards that had bothered her before remained on their best behaviour with those two around. Her hood was up on her cloak so she was able to smirk slightly and not be seen. It seemed to her that her problems with the single men of the village had not gone unremarked. Entering the room, she smiled at the two that had given her escort and thanked them before closing the door behind her to keep the conversation private.
"Suna will be having guests from another of the hidden villages in a few days." Gaara opened up as she pulled the hood of her cloak back.
He had noticed that she never went outside without it on and in the past when he had asked her about it he wasn't too surprised with her answer. "I, get sun sick easily and after my last trip to the hospital, I do not care to repeat it."
To his surprise today she seemed a little nervous about the idea of other ninjas in the village. He could understand that. Suna was a private and hard to get to place if you did not know what you were doing, and she seemed to take comfort in the fact that there weren't a lot of people that she wasn't familier with around. His only thought on that was that she would make a good shinobi with her observational skills alone.
"Who are they? Why are they coming here?" From what she could gather, Suna did not host many ninja from outside the sand clans. Instead they usually went outside of the village to meet when it was required.
"There is a small group coming from Konoha. Nothing that is a threat to you but I did put together a little information so you would at least know who to expect. For no other reason than you will be hosting a couple of them in your home while the group is here." Gaara was watching her carefully now. This was a rather large order to put on the woman, and he knew that at some points she would need a translator because she defaulted to her home language when the stress became too much for her to handle. However the housing barracks for guests had not been rebuilt since the Ichibi that had been sealed within him last got out of control. The only problem with providing for a translator was that while people around the village were slowly picking up her language, only he, and his two siblings knew the language with enough fluency to make a proper translation without insulting anyone.
"You want me to, what?" Hoshiwara's eyes got large as she heard that she would be hosting complete strangers in her home in less than a week.
"From what I understand, you would make an ideal host. You are currently living alone and without any official duties to the village or myself. The house that you had been given was the only one we had to suit you, but it has more than enough space to host two people without any worry of overcrowding." He was very carefully sticking to solid logic knowing that eventually she would see the logic of his decision and agree without having to force the decision. The last time he had forced a decision on her, she had made his life a living nightmare, taking his instructions literally or only doing what was asked and not a bit more. It was another reason he had come to respect her. She was extremely intelligent. She wouldn't directly disobey a decision made by him in the capacity of Kazekage, but she was quite aware that orders were a double edged sword and could be used to make the person giving them wish they hadn't thought to come to her in the first place. It was then that he saw that she was coming to the decision on her own that he dropped the final, and most telling argument.
"You will not be the only one hosting people from this group. I would house them in a more communal lodging but our host center was destroyed the last time the Ichibi took control and I haven't had the time to oversee the building of a new one."