Kakashi huffed out a sigh, wondering why he of all people had to be the one to get mixed into this situation. He couldn't just have a day off to himself, could he? No, of course not; it's always something in this damned village. And as long as Lee and Gai were on the scene, there'd be no way for him to get out of investigating this odd girl. If she were really a threat though, he was sure she could've done something to hide herself more effectively.
He jumped up onto the roof of the building to his right, scouting for Lee and Gai. A few blocks down he spotted a series of green flashes that he could only assume were them, and made haste in their direction.
Shiori was darting from alley to alley, knocking things and people over in her wake and mumbling her apologies while trying to outrun her enthusiastic pursuers. It was no use. They were fast as lightning, even managing to somehow get in front of her at some points and causing her to change direction. There was no way she could get out of this without using chakra, much to her dismay; she had been avoiding it so that her chakra signature would be nonexistent and therefore untraceable. Her hands flew, making the handsigns for the phoenix flower jutsu. She had no intention of hurting them, but what she could do was block their path with a well-tamed fire long enough to escape over the wall of the village and make her way back home.
She did just that, bringing her hands together in rapid succession before turning behind her with her fingers still in the tiger position. With a deep inhale and exhale came a burst of red hot fire, melting the snow from the ground as it graced it with its fiery caresses and rising to block her the path she came from when she raised her hands. She smirked in satisfaction as she watched the fire crackle, focusing her chakra into it as to not cause too much destruction to the village. She turned around to continue running and…
Came face to face with the masked man named Kakashi, who had somehow managed to slip in behind her while she had her back turned. Their bodies were mere inches apart as she turned, and she jumped back in surprise and tripped over her own feet, losing control of the fire as she fell back into the snow.
"You sure are a messy one. Have you seen the mess you left in those alleys back there? What did those fruit vendors ever do to you?" He asked with a friendly smile that was hidden in part by the mask on his face.
She only stared wide-eyed at him, completely baffled as to what her next move should be. Her heart clamored in her chest as her eyes darted back and forth between Kakashi and the village wall behind him, her only shot at freedom blocked by a powerful shinobi that outranked her by double.
Suddenly from behind, footsteps crunched through the snow and came to a screeching halt directly behind her. She snapped her head around to see none other than Lee and Gai, standing proudly as if they had found buried treasure.
"Great job, Kakashi! You found our young damsel! And here I thought you were a good for nothing pervert!" Gai laughed loudly as he strode right up to her and took in the sight of her. Pale skin made paler by the loss of blood, blood soaked bandages hugging her skull and stomach, and her skin stung red by the cold and her bare feet turning blue from direct contact with the snow. She looked like a wounded animal, a creature that had been taken in and abused and set out to die. He had planned to approach her as his normal, humorous self, but something in the way she looked at him, something about the fear in her eyes let him decide that that was not the way to approach her. He looked her over silently as she shivered, and then he sat down in the snow near her, letting her keep her distance so he wouldn't scare her away again. He liked to think he was in top physical condition, but this tiny girl gave him a run for his money and he didn't want to have to chase her down again and let Lee hear him wheezing.
"I know you're scared," he said in a solemn tone, "but whatever you think it is we want from you, I promise that's not what's going on. You're bleeding," he took a moment to look at her strange, golden eyes. "You're hurt, and you're cold. We want to help you."
She stared at him as he spoke, feeling the genuine concern seeping through his words but not yet knowing whether to trust it. She glanced between Lee and Kakashi, all of them huddling around her. Her eyes rested once again on Gai, not saying a word, but silently accepting his statement.
"I just wanted to go home," she said quietly. Gai stared at her sympathetically. "I didn't mean to mess anything up. I just… I wanted to get away."
"I can understand that," he said, tilting his head to the side. "I knew you didn't look familiar. But instead of running away from us, you could tell us where home is and we could see what we can do about getting you back there."
"Tsunade," Shiori said hastily. "Tsunade wants—"
"There she is! Sai, here she is, Kakashi-sensei found her!" Naruto's loud voice cut through the quiet exchange like a kunai through flesh as he jumped down from the roof, landing to the left of Lee, behind Shiori. Gai looked at him with disapproval for bursting in like he always did, then shot a glance at Shiori's face fulling with dread. Gai stood up slowly, stretching his back and smiling down at Shiori before walking over to Naruto and pushing him in the opposite direction. Sai jumps down beside Kakashi and stares blankly at the girl bleeding in the snow.
"What is it? I need to get her back to granny Tsunade," Naruto started.
"Listen closely to me, Naruto," Gai said in a hushed tone. "You of all people know that I'm never one to discourage a youthful approach to any situation, but I'm going to have to ask you to tone it down when dealing with our friend here."
Naruto gave him a confused glance, crossing his arms behind his head as he peeked around Gai's towering figure in front of him.
"I don't really think I have to be gentle with her. She knocked a huge male nurse straight on his ass back at the hospital, she's—"
"She's hurt and she's scared, Naruto. Please." Gai pleaded, but it came out sounding like more of a demand than a request, betraying his choice of words. Naruto sighed angrily, scratching his head in defeat.
"Fine," he said as he walked around Gai to rejoin the group, with Gai following behind him.
"So as I was saying, Shiori-chan, if you focus just a little bit of your chakra into your feet alone, it'll help keep them warm. You should try it until we get back to the hospital and—"
"Ahhh, Lee, such great advice as always," Gai said, slapping his hand onto Lee's shoulder. "But not the best for the situation she was in. If our friend here had put chakra to her feet, her chakra signature would've been traceable for us. She's a capable ninja, she knows what to do to avoid being tracked," Gai grinned down at the small female curled in on herself. Her eyes were turned away from him, instead looking at her feet. Her hands slithered from the oversized sleeves of Naruto's jacket and grasped them, her eyes closing as a faint yellow glow leaked from between her fingers. As the glow faded she let out a sigh of relief, slowly turning her golden eyes up to Lee.
"It helps," she said weakly, rubbing her hands against her bare legs. Lee smiled widely, turning to Gai in search of approval for his useful advice. Gai's hand was still planted on his shoulder, so he gave it a light squeeze in the spirit of praise.
"But it won't work forever, you know," chimed Kakashi in a sing-song tone of voice. "Even chakra won't keep you from getting frostbite, so I really suggest we make our way back to the hospital to get your obviously open wounds taken care of."
"Yeah, what Kakashi-sensei said. Granny Tsunade is probably losing her mind looking for ya too," Naruto said as he glanced at her.
Shiori looked around at the shinobi who had surrounded her. She knew they must pity her. A little runt like her must've been crazy to think she could outrun full-fledged jounin and escape before anyone was wiser. It was just like back in Otogakure. The looks they were giving her now sent a familiar shiver down her spine, it was the same way that Kabuto had looked at her the first time she lost to Sasuke.
She tried her best to win, but Sasuke was two years older than her and was wise in battle tactics and physically strong beyond both of their years. She managed to suffer through twenty minutes of brawling, however, the last time his foot came into contact with her skull in the form of a Lion's Barrage she was gone. Her body bounced off of the concrete floor with such great force she almost looked like a basketball. Sasuke squared his shoulders and cracked his knuckles, standing menacingly near her as he waited for her to rise again. When she didn't, he let out a guttural laugh and walked out of the room to bask in another victory, closing the heavy metal door behind him.
She laid in silence for what felt like years, left completely motionless by the pain that was ravaging her entire body. She was almost positive she could feel blood trickling from her face, her arm was sore and hard to move, and she could feel a stinging sensation from her left kneecap to the top of her training sandals. She thought if she stayed there long enough they would think she were dead and toss her out. She prayed that they would release her because she was too weak. But neither of those things happened.
She heard the metal door behind her slide open once again and shut her eyes tight, thinking that it must have been the boy coming back to finish what he had started. He must've been watching somehow, must've seen her chest rising and falling with each labored breath and decided to put her out of her misery.
As the thoughts of what he might do to her crushed her under their weight, she felt a soft hand grip her shoulders gently. The tenderness was both welcomed and severely unanticipated since it was such a change from what she had been experiencing there. Slowly, the hands flipped her from her stomach to her back. She felt the cool cobblestone poking into her spine as she lay there, and then she opened her eyes and took in a face she hadn't seen yet.
He looked to be Sasuke's age, but he had silver hair and black eyes framed by big, round glasses. A sound headband was fastened around his forehead and he was wearing a dark violet sleeveless shirt with a large collar over a white t-shirt and fingerless gloves. His hair was tied back in a spikey ponytail.
He was definitely a strange looking guy, but his looks weren't what caught Shiori's eye. It was instead the look in his eyes as he stared down at her broken body. Since she arrived at the facility, she had either been greeted with anger and hateful words or complete ignorance. This boy looked at her with a pity deeper than she had ever experienced in her life.
"Where are you hurt other than your head?" he asked, rifling around in a first aid kit that she hadn't noticed before. She stared up at him for a few seconds until the pain in her arm persuaded her to speak.
"I think my left arm might be fractured," she choked out quietly, "And my leg is scraped up pretty badly." He took her arm gently in his hands and inspected it, pressing down in a few spots that made her cringe, but released it before he could do any real damage.
"It's not fractured, but it's definitely sprained. That can be fixed," he said as he took some loose bandages and wrapped them around her arm firmly. "Your head is what I'm worried about. He really gave you a beating up here," he gently pushed through her blood-matted hair to get to the open wounds that Sasuke's shoe had left her with. Blood was just barely trickling from it as he cleared the area. From the first aid kit he drew a cloth and water, and then he gently cleaned the blood up so he could properly bandage it.
After a few more minutes under the boy's tender care, Shiori was bandaged and cleaned up as best as she could be. He had applied some healing chakra to her injuries and the pain was starting to fade already. It was then that he stood up and helped her to her feet, half carrying her out of the stone-floored room to her bed. They walked through the winding corridors in near silence, the only sounds being their feet upon the ground and Shiori's labored breathing as she struggled to move her feet.
Finally they turned the corner down a long hall with a single door that was held shut by three padlocks. The boy opened it and led her inside, laying her gently on the bed she had been sleeping on since she arrived. He sighed as he inspected her bandages once more before turning to leave.
"You've got to start training more or you're never going to gain any respect around here. I know you're scared, but the beating you just got was only a fraction of what you'll be experiencing soon." He offered her a loaded glance before walking out, closing the door and locking it behind him. She heard the distinct sound of metal upon metal as the three locks were set one by one.
Shiori was grateful for his tender care to her injuries. She was grateful that anyone at all had taken the time out of their day to give her anything other than a beating, but at the same time she was extremely confused. She couldn't wrap her head around why he had helped her so freely, or why he seemed to be one of the only people with any real consciousness in the village. Everyone else had a constant blank stare on their face, but he held emotion, his voice was velvety and comforting like she had known him before.
He couldn't possibly be a bad guy, could he? Surely not after putting in the extra effort to speed her healing rather than letting her suffer through the injuries silently, she thought. But the cold tone in his voice as he told her she needed to train told her otherwise. He knew something she didn't know; maybe he knew what Orochimaru had planned for her. She hoped silently that whatever his plan was, it wouldn't get much worse than it already was.
Shiori sighed as she came back to reality, standing shakily to her feet with some assistance from Lee. She looked at Gai and nodded to signal that she was ready to go, and then they took off in the direction of the hospital once again.