Tree Leaf Hospital – Konoha's unimaginatively named hospital – was a businesslike three-story affair. It wasn't as visually imposing as the Hokage tower, but with the way it stretched over an entire block it was probably about as large. Whether it had been intended to be massive from the start or if it had grown in Tsunade's time to reflect the prestige of the greatest medic alive, Tenten didn't know. But it was a lovely building now, with green lacquer shutters against a yellow and off-white design for the walls. The roof tiles were also an eye-catching shade of green, different from the bright blue and red tiles that were the Konoha usual.

And yet, as big as the hospital was there were still never enough medics to see everyone. The medic-nin were needed for mission damage; the crazy stuff. Katon burns like leaping full body into a fire, crush damage from earth jutsu, winds that flensed skin from flesh, the infinite breadth and depth of showing poisons. Anything acquired more locally had to be treated by normal medicine. Most ninja clans had their own clan doctors who were more qualified to deal with their exotic biology, and thank the gods for that or the system would be totally overloaded. That was life in a ninja village.

Tenten shuffled through the massive glass doors and towards the front desk, manned by a harried-looking young woman with flyaway brown hair. Tenten gingerly leaned against the desk, stopping when she felt the twinge in her back.

"Hey Honoka," Tenten said, her smile only a little strained. "I'm here to see Lee, can I go on up?"

"Visitor pass," the barely-awake young woman mumbled, shoving a card into Tenten's hand. "G'wan up."

She'd taken the time to scrawl a sloppy seal on the back, like a stylized U, and ink Tenten's name on the front. Tenten had never figured out what the seal was for. Some kind of tracker or monitor, probably. Maybe just a fake to make people think they were being monitored, ninja being tricky like that. Tenten certainly couldn't feel any chakra worked into the paper, or the ink. But then, she usually didn't sense a lot of the subtle stuff. She could land a hundred shots out of a hundred throws in a fight, but she'd never have made it as a medic or genjutsu ninja.

On the way around the desk and towards the back of the foyer she ran into a familiar face, of sorts. Not that they'd technically met before, but with a brilliant red and white dress, pink candy-floss hair and bright green eyes, she was certainly memorable. Pretty, and delicate, and soft. Tenten had to remind herself that Haruno Sakura could fight; she certainly didn't look the part.

That was impressive, in a way. They taught kunoichi flower arranging and how to wear kimono for a reason, after all.

"Um," Sakura said, the pink-themed genin holding her single white easter lily tight. "Tenten, right? I saw your fight in the preliminaries, you were great!"

"Thanks," Tenten said awkwardly, trying to come up with something nice to say in return. The pinkette had needed Lee to save her in the Forest of Death, and to hear Lee tell it she'd basically agreed to become his girlfriend in exchange for saving her. But then he'd also said something about her tricking a Sound ninja with a kawarimi and then biting him?

Lee had been a little incoherent at that point (and bleeding from the ears), so she didn't have the best picture of events.

Still, Tenten had allowed herself to have some expectations for Lee's crush in the preliminaries, but then Sakura had showed pretty basic form in her preliminary fight. Good basic techniques, a strong grasp of Academy taijutsu. The thing that stood out was fighting off the Yamanaka mind invasion, which was… weird. Possibly impossible? Tenten wasn't an expert or anything, but being able to defeat a clan's signature jutsu just by trying really hard was kind of nuts.

There was probably a reason she was on a team with the Uchiha and the kid Tenten had recently learned was being tutored by a Sannin, but Tenten had no idea what that reason was. So basically, Tenten had no idea what to complement the girl on.

"You were pretty good, too," she decided to go with. "Good traps."

Turning a tree three times as wide as Tenten was tall into a deadfall trap was totally overkill, but the good kind of overkill.

"Yeah, thanks," Sakura mumbled, looking vaguely depressed despite being complemented. Maybe she didn't think traps counted or something? Or she was one of those ninja who thought good jutsu needed to be big and flashy. Like a fireball or a lightning bolt killed people more dead, or better, than sticking a triangular piece of metal in them. Really, she blamed the Academy curriculum: as long as a student could hit a target 6 out of 10 times, they could scrape through with a pass, but if you didn't learn any of the three Academy jutsu it was an automatic fail.

Tenten abruptly realized she was about to start ranting in her head about how she would Show Them All, and that never ended well for anyone.

"You seem like the smart type, you just need to toughen up a bit, get some more taijutsu under your belt," Tenten opined. "Training with Lee would do it, if he could actually buckle down and train with you around."

Sakura made a face at that, which, fair enough Tenten supposed. Lee-training was nuts, and some people were okay at settling for being 'good enough' ninja. Tenten shrugged philosophically, spreading one hand as if to say of herself, 'Look, see?' "Can't win 'em all, obviously."

She began making her way slowly up the stairs, breathing evenly, back ramrod straight. Good for her rehab, the doctors had said. The up stairs part; she'd take the elevator back down. Sakura matched her pace, but the look on her face got awkward like she wasn't sure if she should go on ahead, start shouting encouragement, or silently support her.

"Oh, yes, how are you?" Sakura inquired, after she'd opened her mouth twice and closed it without saying anything. "The ending of that fight was awful."

"Been better," Tenten admitted. "Hoping someone will be able to see me for a session today, but I'm not holding my breath about it. It's only been a week, and there were a lot of nasty injuries in the exam."

"Yes," Sakura shuddered. "That Gaara… poor Lee-san."

"Yeah," Tenten sighed, feeling gloom trying to settle in. There would be only positivity on this trip, however! Tenten had decreed it. Lee deserved at least that much. "Anyway, are you here to see Lee too? Come on, let's walk."

They were silent for a few moments, not sure what to say. Then Tenten smiled suddenly, a bright flash of teeth. "So, Lee, huh?"

"Yes?" Sakura asked warily, like she could sense a trap unfolding.

"Have you been in to see your knight in green spandex? Visit him regularly?" she said suggestively. "Should I be asking about your intentions toward the poor boy?"

Sakura's face screwed up into such a hilarious rictus that Tenten had to laugh.

"Well, I'm grateful to Lee-san of course, but his face is a little..." Sakura protested.

"You know, I have a strict policy that anyone that saves my life gets a date," Tenten said idly. "Encourages them to do it more often."

This was true, sort of. She wasn't entirely sure Lee, Neji and Gai actually knew why she insisted on treating them to nice meals after certain missions, but they went along with it with good grace.

… Except for that time with the sake. Never again – a quarter of their mission fees would be going towards paying for that shop for a while. And if even Gai decided to seal a taijutsu skill away rather than train it, then it was just too dangerous.

"Well, that seems fair I guess," Sakura mumbled. "But I've really been saving myself for Sasuke-san…"

"I didn't say you had to sleep with the guy," Tenten argued. "Just, you know, express your thanks. You know he's head over heels for you."

"Mm," Sakura blushed. "But a first kiss is important for girls, you know?"

"Is it?" Tenten blinked. Sometimes, just sometimes, she worried that she was pretty shit at this 'girl' thing, because stuff like first kisses seemed kind of pointless to her. "Well, something to think about anyway."

Sakura paused in front of a room and glanced inside. "Wasn't Lee-san in room 212?"

"Should be, yeah."

"He's not in there," she said slowly. A quick glance inside confirmed it for Tenten too. There were her sunflowers from a week ago with Gai's pinwheel mixed into the bunch, and Neji's incense burner, and the hand grip thing for therapy… but no Lee.

Tenten sighed, managing to imply the suggestion of a depressed droop while leaving her back perfectly straight. "Damn it, Lee."

"I think I've heard about this," Sakura said thoughtfully. She grinned oddly, secretly, the kind of grin that said she wanted to give Lee a pat on the back and buy him a beer for being a pain in the ass. It didn't really mesh with the Sakura Tenten had been talking to for the last five minutes. "That he's running the nurses ragged trying to train with two broken limbs."

"That sounds like Lee alright," Tenten agreed. She added seriously, "He's a rock, that one."

Sakura sighed. "Seriously? Name puns? That was barely even a pun, that was just… bad."

Tenten just shrugged unrepentantly. She thought about it for a few seconds, then snapped out an order. "Okay, you check the courtyard! I'll go let the nurses know."

"Right!" Sakura obeyed, hurrying off.

Tenten ambled towards the nurse's station, in no particular hurry. Lee could be kind of an idiot, but he was a big boy too. She could try and look after him, make sure he didn't forget to eat after training all night and all that, but she wasn't his mother either.

"Hey, Lee's gone," she informed the on-duty nurses, a pair of brunettes and one green-haired lady in pink scrubs.

"Again?" one of the brunettes groaned, head dropping down to meet her open palm.

"He gets out often, huh?" Tenten asked rhetorically, not really surprised.

"He keeps trying to train," the green-haired one, older than the other two by probably a decade, grumbled like she was mentally wishing a pox on all too-eager shinobi. Tenten smiled almost helplessly as if to say, 'That's Lee.'

"Sayuri, Ayaka, man the station," the woman in scrubs ordered. "I'll check the therapy lot."

"I have Sakura checking the courtyard," Tenten informed her.

"Good," she said succinctly, already marching away. She had a way of moving that felt like even if she was an inch or two shorter than Tenten, anyone getting in her way would regret it. It was a power walk that a lot of medic-nin developed at some point, in Tenten's limited experience. The wild-eyed paper ninja that worked at Hokage Tower, too. 'Kill me or get out of the way, I have shit to do', that kind of feeling.

"So…" Tenten slowly leeaaned against the counter, careful of her back. Maybe some of Naruto's luck had rubbed off over lunch, because this was really lucky. "How've you been, Sayuri?"

The gawky older teenager with long brown hair that had been half hiding behind a four foot tall stack of charts and manuals gave up pretending she wasn't there. "Hi, Tenten."

Tenten grinned at her, ignoring the other girl's swiftly darkening cheeks. Sayuri was kind of a wallflower, and easily embarrassed. But she knew her stuff, and Tenten respected that. Also, she was enough of a pushover that Tenten could cadge freebies out of her sometimes, which automatically made her a good person.

"You must have graduated your med-nin class, huh?"

"Um, yes."

"Something like a residency now I guess?"

"That's right."

"Congratulations!"

Sayuri curled in like a tree bowing under the wind, her blush deepening. She had a weird habit of hunching so that she didn't seem as tall as she was. "Thanks," she mumbled.

The other nurse in her mid-twenties looked like she wasn't sure if she should intervene or not, but more amused than not. "Friend of yours, Sayuri?"

"Um, n-not really."

"Hey, you're going to hurt my feelings," Tenten protested.

"Um, I just mean, we were neighbors," Sayuri flustered. Classic Sayuri; the idea of hurting someone's feelings got her defenses down. Then you could strike at the soft, warm underbelly – verbally speaking.

"Right, so as neighbors – and friends – could you help me out?" Tenten pleaded. "Just a minute in the break room, or a convenient closet or something! I could really use the relief."

Sayuri blushed harder and her fingers danced aimlessly, spider-like, over the charts in front of her. The other nurse's eyebrows were slowly raising up into her hairline. Tenten played that back in her head and realized what that had sounded like.

"My back is killing me," she explained.

The unnamed nurse had a look on her face like light dawning. "We're not supposed to heal on the side, at least on hospital grounds," she informed her.

"I'm a patient," Tenten argued. "I just haven't managed to make it up the list for nin-healing."

"Just toeing the company line," the nurse shrugged. "Go for it, kid, I won't mention it if the boss doesn't notice."

"Great! Come on Sayuri," Tenten said perkily, half-dragging the awkward med-nin up and away from the nurse's station before she could escape.

"Tenten, wait– stop– I just–" Sayuri mumbled as she was dragged. When Tenten finally paused to let her victim gather her wits, Sayuri added, "There's a cot on this floor for when it's too busy to go home, we can use that."

"Let's do it," Tenten agreed.

Sayuri took the lead then, since she actually knew where she was going. Tenten was soon ushered into a tiny break room just big enough to contain two cots and a small TV with a hilarious level of stealth and worry. Sayuri looked more like she was sneaking through enemy territory than stealing a minute away from her duties for a friend.

"Lay down on the cot," Sayuri said, her voice taking on a level of comfort and control that surprised Tenten. It was the kind of voice that could reassure patients they were in competent hands without being cold or distant.

Medicine clearly suited her, Tenten thought, smiling.

"Should I take off my shirt?" she asked, toying with one of the tongs on her shirt. She didn't know how advanced Sayuri's technique was, but skin contact had to be easier than through clothing…?

"Um, n-no! No, that's okay!" Sayuri reassured her in a low-level panic.

Somehow reassured that Sayuri was still the same old Sayuri, Tenten began the laborious process of getting horizontal on the cot.

"Right, yes," Sayuri cleared her throat with a nervous 'ahem' and activated her technique. Tenten, with her head pillowed on her crossed arms, could see a wash of green light color the cream-colored walls.

The feel of the technique as it sank into her back was difficult to describe in words. It was… comforting but not warm, it numbed but wasn't cold, it tingled inside her skin but wasn't ticklish or unpleasant.

"I see the problem," Sayuri said distantly. "L3 to L5, inflammation and swelling, disc is pinched…"

"Sayu…?" Tenten mumbled, oddly sleepy.

Sayuri's hands drifted south, over her back, down one buttock and along the back of her thigh. Woah! That was rather bold for Sayuri.

The trainee asked, "Is there any pain here?"

"Nah… stiff and sore from the way 'm walking, maybe."

"Good, no root nerve damage," she mumbled. "Disc doesn't look herniated. Facet joint could do with a fix, you'll end up with arthritis in old age, but that's above my grade."

"Maybe I'll be dead before that's a problem," Tenten offered optimistically.

Sayuri pinched her butt sharply in retaliation, causing her to jerk and flop on the cot like a landed fish, which sent a retaliatory wave of pain through her back. "Ow! Easy, you evil woman, it was just a joke."

"Not a joke," Sayuri grumbled quietly. Her glowing hand soothed Tenten's lower back from where her jump had jarred it.

"Not a good joke," Tenten corrected.

"Then don't make bad jokes," Sayuri said primly.

"Yeah, yeah…"

That weird, tingling-on-the-inside feeling swept from the middle of her back to her tailbone, briefly detoured to soothe the spot the trainee had pinched as hard as she could, before sweeping back up to her upper back. Up and down, up and down. Tenten wasn't feeling any pain, but that might just be some kind of anaesthetic effect rather than true healing. Despite her admiration for Tsunade, Tenten had never really gotten into the medic-nin stuff.

Time got away from her for a little while, following the pins and needles feeling as it swept back and forth. Finally the warm hand stopped, settling on her spine.

"Done," Sayuri said quietly.

Tenten sat up, gingerly twisting back and forth to test her mobility. Her spine felt stiff, like there was a block in it preventing it from moving too far, but there was no pain.

"The block should last for a day. Recognize this level of movement, it's best you keep things to this level for now," Sayuri said, business-like.

Tenten saw that fine sweat had beaded her brow, and instinctually swept the other girl into a careful hug. The brunette made a funny sound like 'Ubwah!' and stiffened like she'd been kawarimi'd into a block of person-shaped wood. Tenten decided to pat her perfunctorily on the back twice and let her go before this got weird.

"Thanks, Sayu," Tenten said, upbeat.

"Mmm," Sayuri mumbled, a luminescent flush painting her cheekbones and the tips of her ears.

Their trip back to the nurse's station almost required Tenten to drag the other girl, their previous stealth forgotten. Sayuri was, it would seem, still Sayuri. Tenten never had been able to get her to loosen up.

The nurse back at the station took one look at them, Tenten still glowing from the rush of lack-of-pain and Sayuri with sweat drying on her brow and just starting to get her blush under control, and Tenten could see her mind dive into the gutter.

"Well you two look like you had fun," she asked wryly.

"The best," Tenten agreed, not even caring. "I've got a thing, but I'll swing by and see you again, Sayuri. I'm gonna go see about tracking Lee down now."

Nurse and trainee watched her zoom off in silence for a while.

"Are you happy she relies on you, or disappointed that she's going to see a man now, I wonder?"

"Shut up," Sayuri sighed, resting her forehead on the nurse's desk.

Of course, actually chasing down even a hobbled Lee could be a pain. She checked their usual training ground, but there was no green blur with a bowl cut smashing training posts there. No Neji practicing his jyuuken either, which was her fallback plan.

If he wasn't at the training ground, then Tenten reckoned there was about a 75% chance that Lee was now wandering the village, practicing one of Gai's weird training regimens. Their sensei and his favorite pupil were a regular sight around the village, walking on their hands or climbing Hokage mountain or practicing hop squats or whatever other ridiculous thing they were up to. Tenten grimaced as she remembered far too many of their training trips she'd joined them on. Watching Neji hatefully hop squat around the village had been hilarious, but even her thick skin couldn't shed all the stares and whispers.

The other 25% percent was that Lee had overdone it in his condition, tried to work through the pain, and then passed out somewhere. She'd need to find Neji after all.

Tenten attempted not to hold the fact that she could be stalking legendary ninjas for their secrets right now against him. That wasn't how friendship worked.

So, Neji. If not the training ground, he could be at home. The Hyuuga compound was essentially a very nice fortress at the southern end of the village, completely impassible to a clanless ninja such as herself. The fact that it was made of expertly crafted meditation gardens, exquisite koi ponds and delicate paper walls didn't change that fact. At best she could hope to be shuffled off on some branch clan member and trapped in extremely polite small talk for hours until a point had been made; at worst, the gate guard (they had a gate guard) would simply keep her at bay with disdainful looks until she retreated.

If he was at home, then she'd probably have to give up. But it was close enough to lunchtime that he could be eating out. Neji's favorite soba shop – tidy but surprisingly plebeian in attitude and decor – was nearby. So, compound, or restaurant? Tenten didn't exactly have a bunch of i ching sticks handy, so she decided to flip a ryo. The coin spun two and a half arcs through the air, then one and a half down before she snatched it out of the air.

Tails. Compound, then! Now that she had a plan, Tenten resolutely set out for the Hyuuga compound. If she was rebuffed there, she could reverse course and hit the soba shop. He would not escape!

Or he would escape and she could wash her hands of the whole thing herself, now that she'd done everything she could. Hopefully Jiraiya wasn't taking this opportunity to teach Naruto all kinds of literally legendary techniques when she wasn't around. It would fit his sense of humor. If she came back and Naruto had learned summoning, or sage techniques or something like that, she was a little worried that she'd flip out and start ranting like a lunatic, and Jiraiya would laugh and laugh and laugh.

Just thinking about it lit a fire in her belly. The kinds of techniques Jiraiya had… just one would probably be enough to get a hard-working ninja to jounin status or beyond. It would be the kind of thing that you could build a style and a career around. She had to find a way get him to teach her just one technique.