Tayuya dug her nails into the tree bark. She couldn't stop panting, which was so important right now in the hot forest and with the fatigue she felt pulling her down. The pain in her chest flared up at every breath. And she couldn't move right now, as stupid as it sounded. She'd crash into a tree branch and break her neck at best.

Shit! This day fucking sucked...

What did Kabuto say about these symptoms? The shortness of breath and pain in her chest indicated a lung injury… Tayuya looked down at the genin a good twenty-something feet below her, grabbing onto a tree root or something himself. Crippled under her genjutsu. She should take victory in that, at least, but he'd done a lot of damage before she took care of his ugly ass.

That bastard had broken Kidomaru's web and destroyed her doki, both of which were based on chakra. She'd wondered if he had some kind of chakra-depleting ability, but now it seemed to be the exact opposite- He destroyed the web with chakra, isn't that it? The brat had burst the entire system with an overload, and did the same to the doki when it was creating a vacuum to suck up all the chakra he had. Not only that, but he'd figured out all that in the first place. Chakra-sensing skills? Yeah, from what he'd said when he caught up to her team.

Tch… Well, that was a fucking shame. And he'd attacked her system with chakra, too… Ruptured a lung as far as she could tell. Shitty Konoha tool!

Tayuya tried to breathe in and sneered as the pain came again. Huh, she'd always thought of herself an exceptionally clever kunoichi, but today didn't seem to be much evidence to that.

Well, maybe not entirely. That rat hadn't been too clever himself once he got away. Hah! He legitimately thought the doki couldn't hear her from a long distance and ran around trying to guess where she was. She'd like to imagine his surprise when she popped up on a tree branch a good three-quarters of a kilometer from them.

But no, there'd been no reaction. One second he was going after her doki, and the next, trapped in the Chains of Death. Typical of amateur trash like him… It was just a matter of time until he went down, obviously. Nothing too remarkable there.

But then she'd realized how hard it was to breathe, and knew she was in trouble. She'd won, okay? There he was, totally incapacitated and ready for her to pick off. She'd won. She just had to get from here to there!

That was when Tayuya tripped and had to grab another tree limb to keep from falling. Yeah, she looked pretty fucking pathetic right now, eh? If that rat hadn't been so lucky, he'd already be lying on the ground like a fucking ragdoll while his life blood spilled out from his pasty neck. But no, he'd landed one or two stupid hits in and now she was in a shitload of trouble. This fucking…

Even if she managed to land "safely"...heh. There was no telling if she'd make it to him without collapsing too, from the impact of the ground. Or something. She didn't really know how that worked, but was it worth risking?

And then, he wasn't getting out anytime soon, if she could just hold on a little longer and he lost consciousness. Then she wouldn't be risking her neck, either. Or lungs, she guessed.

She guessed. She guessed it was all worth it, too. Not like anyone would think to leave her here, with her importance, with her skill. Not like the garbage friends of this kid would actually make it back to find him and pick her off. That's not something to consider. She never needed to in the past, so why dwell on the crap now? If the kid the kid died at her hand, she lost her life. If he lived, she died again. If the rest of those dumbasses came back for her? Hell, maybe she had a chance. Screw all that loyalty crap! There was such a thing as a priority list.

Tayuya was still contemplating this when the edges of her vision began to blur and she clung to the tree branch for support. She found the genin again, trying to figure out if he was still under genjutsu. It was getting so hard to concentrate now, and she felt dizzy to top it all off. The pain in her chest blurred, too, and she practically slumped against the tree.

Screw it. She'd won.

Mustering up all the incredible strength she had, Tayuya took a deep- yes, deep- breath, and felt the pain wash over her chest and into the rest of her body. Focusing with the pain to keep her awake, she stared at him with as much intensity as you could, feeling her broken chakra network screaming as she forced it to keep the genjutsu on him.

After a few moments, Tayuya succeeded. He fell to the ground, out cold, and she finally let go. He wasn't waking up, even with the genjutsu lifted. And hey, maybe she'd live, too. But you'd won.

She hadn't lost. The pain in her chest dulled as her own consciousness ebbed away.

Ichita was busy preparing coffee in the break room when Izumi walked in, twirling her newly curled brown hair with her finger and carrying a folder behind her back. She sighed, flopping onto the couch to his right.

Ichita smiled pleasantly. No one thought he'd make it past coffee boy and "apprentice" in Torture and Interrogation with how nice he was. Izumi figured he'd chosen that field to release all the anger he kept locked up throughout the day and never showed anyone. Just like her mom, she thought, and the heroes in the action books her little sister loved to read.

"How are you, Izumi-san?" Ichita said. "I have enough coffee for an extra cup, if you'd like."

"Thanks, sweetie," Izumi smiled with lowered eyelids and licked her bottom lip. "I need it, today."

"What for?" Ichita turned around again. "How do you take your coffee?"

"With cream, thank you," Izumi said. "And we seem to have a new prisoner. A little girl."

"Really? That's terrible…" Ichita trailed off, pouring water into the machine. "How little?"

"Well… Not little by ninja standards, I suppose," Izumi said. "Fourteen. But you should just see her in the hospital gown. Very cute, and I might be burning her arms soon…"

"Fourteen is little!" Ichita declared. "I didn't make chuunin until nineteen. I wouldn't be doing dangerous missions until then."

Izumi chuckled softly.

"Well," She murmured. "I don't know how much of this you can know, but I suppose you won't ever run into a little girl in the T and I hospital with a collapsed left lung and a damaged right one. She was in a battle with another fourteen year old- to the death.

"And that's all I'll tell." Izumi smiled.

Ichita made a clucking noise with his tongue as he mixed cream into her coffee.