Chapter Eight: With Friends
"Have some of mine."
Tenzou wrinkled his nose, "Are you trying to poison me? Because that looks vile."
Daisuke made a wild gesture and whispered harshly, "Shh, don't say that so loud! Yumi made it."
Tenzou gulped slowly. Yumi didn't know the difference between a spoon and spatula. Her cooking was horrid, but she seemed to live under the illusion that she was a world-class chef. Under a spell of inspiration (which happened less and less frequently these days, thank goodness), she'd brew up something foul and pass it on to "her boys." Which was all well and good, except for the fact that not eating Yumi's food made her upset. Commenting on its taste or looks made her livid. So they had all learned to lie and lie well.
An unfortunate way to learn a skill, his sensei had said wistfully.
Being the gentlemen that they were, Daisuke and he always concocted strange plans to rid themselves of the stuff on the sly. Although they were both accomplices, neither of them were above fobbing the food onto the other.
But being blindsided, like Daisuke forking the meal to him without telling him who made it, often made Tenzou slip up and say things he shouldn't. "Oh." He was relieved. "At least she isn't behind me."
"Are you two losers talking about me?"
Daisuke and he exchanged wary glances as Yumi sat herself down next to them. She wasn't throttling anyone yet, so chances were high she hadn't actually heard Tenzou's critique of her culinary skills.
"No," Daisuke said, pushing his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose. "Tenzou was just commenting on how nice the weather is."
"Since when do I care about the weather?" he said, feeling soundly used.
Yumi rubbed at her cheek, looking awfully smug all of a sudden. "You know, I thought all you tree-hugger types did."
"I can make trees," Tenzou explained, clearly exasperated. They had been teammates for a good few years now and she was still teasing him about his trademark jutsus. "There is no 'hugging' involved."
Before they could get into another argument, Daisuke quickly diverted Yumi's attention to him and his new strategy booklet. It was obvious she had absolutely no interest in it, but paid attention despite that; patient undertones often lied beneath otherwise bitchy overtones, Tenzou had learned. He cast Daisuke a grateful look. The only response he received was a shrug. Handling angry female teammates was a task usually handed off to him anyway.
Tenzou sighed and moved away from the two to lie back on a grassy knoll several feet away. It was a nice day out, perfect for relaxing; not too hot and most certainly not cold. He'd shrugged out of his flak jacket after noon. It was one of those days where he felt an out-of-character, jovial attitude. The corners of his mouth felt lifted even when he wasn't smiling. He'd laughed at Daisuke's jokes more than usual.
He figured his spirits were up because of his callback for the next ANBU test. High enough that he was even willing to call his teammates out for an impromptu get-together. Daisuke had enough free time to come and Yumi wasn't yet annoyed with him to not. Sensei was casually left out of the equation, although he had a sinking feeling that that choice would have dire retributions in the future.
As much as he liked to complain incessantly about them (in the privacy of his own mind, of course), they really were the only shinobi he considered close to him. After reading through the scrawl of the poor person who had to write boring, diplomatic acceptance letters, Tenzou decided that there was much cause for celebration. It was strange that the people he considered the most aggravating were the ones he'd called first when he got the good news. And by "good news", he meant a not-so-convincing lie that involved Bucket's fourth birthday.
But it hardly mattered. Yumi and Daisuke were smiling at him from their perch underneath the trees and a crumpled piece of parchment was tucked safely in his pocket. Everything was going perfectly as planned. A calm breeze floated over the edge of the cliff and rolled over them, rustling the tree leaves and casting a flurry of flower seeds across the grass field.
"Hey Tenzou, this is supposed to be your party! Don't you know how a host is supposed to act?" Yumi said, faux-exasperation coating all her words.
He heard Daisuke snort. "Yeah. Bucket will be upset if you don't join us."
Yumi laughed. "Lucky for you two, I made some chocolate cake just for the occasion!" He heard the tinkle of plates and utensils clinking together.
Daisuke began to stammer.
Tenzou smiled in spite of his horrified digestive system.
He woke up in the hospital.
All the nerves in his body felt strangely hyper-aware and a dull ringing rattled around in his eardrums. Everything felt very clear. He shifted up in the bed, wincing at the flare of pain he felt along his sides. He let out a breath and relaxed against the pillow propping him up. The pain subsided almost immediately. It took him a moment to remember everything that had happened. The promotion into ANBU, the bar, the briefing, the mission. Kakashi leaning up against the doorway before the room splintered underneath them both. Everything significant in the past week began to compound and he suddenly felt very breathless.
An important piece of information was tucked in the back of his mind. He tried to remember, to reach as far as he could, but it wouldn't come to him no matter how hard he tried.
His room was very plain. The ceiling was tiled and white, with several rows of fluorescent panels stretched across the ceiling. None of them were turned on. The window next to him was partway closed and the blinds were drawn open. It must have been very early in the morning, or the day was just beginning to wind down.
A warm breeze flitted over his head. The scent of fresh pine and fried foods began to mingle with the smell of his room; it made him partly sick, but it also made him feel more comfortable-knowing that the village was still running and that he was still a part of it. Being alive was great, but it always felt a hundred times more pleasant when you knew you were so close to being dead.
The door to his room swung open and a hurried-looking nurse swept inside. She was scribbling things across a clipboard and snatched another one up from the foot of his bed. He debated on letting her know that he was awake, but she looked up before he had a chance to say anything. "Oh, Tenzou-san," she said, her tone somewhere between surprised and frustrated. He wondered, idly, which patient had pissed in her cereal this shift.
"Hi," he rasped out, for lack of anything better to say. His tongue felt a little dry and his throat felt rather tight.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, enunciating slowly, as if he had experienced more head trauma than he had previously thought. It could have been possible, but he didn't feel any more traumatized than usual.
"Water would be nice," he replied. "But I feel fine otherwise."
She nodded her head, scribbling away at the papers in the clipboard. She didn't seem to be interested in getting him that glass of water he had requested, though. After a moment she said, "Can you tell me your address?"
He quirked an eyebrow. "It should be on my health insurance card."
She paused in her writing and peered at him. "Can you tell me your address, please?"
Tenzou shifted uncomfortably. "Red Leaf Apartments, third floor, apartment number five."
"Do you know the date?"
"I'll guess April ninth," he said. The nurse nodded her head with an expectant sigh.
He knew he didn't know the present date and it didn't alarm him, nor did it seem to alarm the nurse. Keeping track of dates and times tends to be difficult when you're passed out so often, right? he thought. Like after he had passed out in the forest. He paused.
Kakashi. Sharingan. A fuzzy image of a swirl of black and red jumped into his mind's eye and, with a quick intake of breath, he realized that he was suddenly very alone in a hospital room. Wouldn't the rest of his team visit him if he were in the hospital? If they were alive? What if both Kakashi and Raidou had been eaten by mountain lions while he had been passed out?
"What happened to the rest of my team?" he asked, feeling (and hearing) his heart rate speed up. The pressure over his index finger, the pulse monitor clip, seemed to increase along with it.
The nurse hooked the clipboard back over the end of the bed. A comforting smile spread across her lips. Tenzou found it strange how she could go from clinical to matronly in such a short span of time. "I don't have the clearance to know. But I'll let the doctor know that you've woken up. Relax for now."
Tenzou didn't know whether to heed her advice. If she didn't know the gruesome details then perhaps nothing had happened. But doctors were usually the ones to break the very bad news. The chances that anything distressing had happened to the team were slim. They were capable, even while severely incapacitated. But he'd rather be reassured by someone else about Genma and Hayate, Raidou, or even Kakashi, than to be left alone by himself to mull over... things.
He let out a heavy breath through his nose. He didn't even know why he was so worried. If there had been anything out in the forest, Tenzou was sure Kakashi would have gladly offered Tenzou's body as the first sacrifice. He sniffed.
He looked out the window again, watching several wisps of steam and smoke escape over the village. The ticking of a clock, probably hung somewhere in the shadows, lulled him into a light doze. There wasn't much else to do but wait.
The doctor came in about thirty minutes later. He was short and trim and looked to be about forty-something. He also looked a little agitated, as his wide eyes flashed about the room several times before finally landing on Tenzou. The doctor tugged on a loose piece of string on his coat pocket, looking rather uncomfortable in the doorway. He had faint scars etched across his face and hands-all of them looked to be from a senbon variant. Being as old as he looked, Tenzou assumed the man had been through the war as a medical shinobi and, as he was still alive and working, was probably a good one.
The nurse who Tenzou had talked to earlier slipped in behind the doctor, smiling tightly and carrying another clipboard.
"How are you feeling?" the doctor asked, moving towards his bedside in quick steps. The nurse remained by the doorway. Before Tenzou could answer, the doctor pulled out a small flashlight from his front pocket and pried Tenzou's eyelids apart. The reaction to blink set in, but the doctor kept about his business.
"So?" said the doctor, moving onto Tenzou's other eye. Instead of flashing a light however, he simply placed his fingers on Tenzou's temple. A faint glow surrounded his hand. Tenzou was amazed that he felt the same sensations as the light in his eyes; he blinked rapidly. The doctor didn't seem to mind.
"Parched," he said finally. It seemed a little rude to point out that he was feeling just a little uncomfortable with someone else's chakra probing around his head.
The glow around the doctor's hand dimmed as he pulled his hand away. "Well, if that's your only complaint, I think we did a swell job on fixing you up. You were brought in about thirty-six hours ago, severely dehydrated, concussed, with a dislocated shoulder. The usual fix with you young ninja, you know. I'm concerned about keeping the swelling down in your shoulder, but as long as you take what is prescribed to you your full range of motion should be up to snuff in, say, three weeks."
Tenzou nodded with a frown. "How long before I can start training again?"
"Nothing for at least a week and from there you can start with light exercise."
"And active duty?"
"Don't expect to see your name on the roster for another four weeks."
Great. His first mission and he was already on the disabled list. "My team… are they-?"
"Just fine. Almost better than that, actually," he said with a fluttering smile. The doctor rubbed his hands together and looked back at the nurse. "It might be best to fix up the discharge forms for him tonight, I think."
"Doctor, can you tell me Hatake-san's condition?" Tenzou asked suddenly, not all together sure why he'd even done so.
"I'm not sure I should say. Confidentiality and whatnot," the doctor said quietly. He seemed to be in deep thought then leaned in very close. "Between you and me his prognosis is positive, but I have to say, he was in far worse condition than you."
Nothing more was said to Tenzou after that, who was rather glad he didn't have to be bothered to think. The doctor ran few several more tests, either with chakra or another medical device. By the end of it, Tenzou's shoulder felt much better, but at the expense of quite a bit of poking and prodding that had hurt. The nurse and doctor left shortly after, leaving Tenzou alone with his thoughts once more.
The answers he'd received weren't the ones he'd been looking for and, honestly, had given him more questions. What had the doctor meant about Kakashi being in worse condition than he?
The image of his captain leaned up against a tree, his breathing labored, flashed in his mind. A shudder passed through Tenzou's body then. He suddenly felt very ashamed. Had he gotten out of the building faster-had he found the daimyo sooner...
"Stop thinking," he said, rubbing his temple with his free hand. He shifted as much as he could without causing himself pain and tried to shrug the guilty feeling off. It isn't healthy, he thought, to be thinking so hard right now. He closed his eyes and sleep caught up with him within minutes.
He awoke what seemed like several seconds later, when someone jostled his elbow. He was about to give that someone a piece of his mind, but croaked lamely instead.
It was bright in his room now. The fact that he hadn't woken up the moment the sunlight crept inside was a testament to how out of it he must have been. He blinked and rubbed his eyes with small sound of protest. When his vision finally cleared, he registered a sight that relieved him more than he'd thought was possible.
Genma was leaning over him, eyebrows raised, a senbon lazily bobbing between his lips. He looked amused.
A flood of relief and happiness swelled inside Tenzou's chest. His mouth twitched into a faint, but sincere, smile.
Hayate was sitting in the chair in the corner, reading a newspaper.
Raidou was peering out the window, lost in his own world, but soon turned to give Genma a look that said "quit it." He turned his focus onto Tenzou. "How do you feel?"
"Thirsty," said Tenzou automatically.
Genma handed him a styrofoam cup, already brimming with cool water. Tenzou drank it greedily.
"You're looking pretty good," said Genma, handing him another cup of water. He shook his head in disbelief. "We really thought you were gone…"
Hayate folded his newspaper in half as Genma's sentence trailed off. The atmosphere in the room churned with mixed emotions. Tenzou felt himself weighed down again. The chair at his bedside, presumably reserved for the team captain, was noticeably absent. He wondered if they'd left that seat empty on purpose, as a sort of subconscious low-note. But, right then, his mind conjured up the image of Kakashi doodling on his face with sharpie. A handlebar mustache, no doubt, would've been his punishment for getting himself injured.
"Hey," said Raidou, his face losing its usual impassiveness. "We're glad you're still with us."
Genma nodded, a wry smile spreading across his face. "You should have seen us as the med-nins carried you off. Raidou was shitting bricks."
"Thanks for visiting," Tenzou said quietly. He hadn't expected any less, but it was touching anyway.
Hayate smiled faintly. "When you're discharged, we ought to visit Hatake-san."
Tenzou nodded. "How is he doing, by the way?"
Genma sighed. "Drugged out of his mind."
"What he means to say is that, because he refused immediate medical attention from me until the very last second, he is enduring several rounds of antibiotics because of an infection," said Raidou. Upon seeing Tenzou's horrified expression, he continued. "It could have been life-threatening, but we got him in time. Nothing to worry about."
A faint knock at the door caught everyone's attention.
"We're decent," Genma said.
The door opened and a young girl slipped through. She bowed low at the hips, pressing her palms together. It was a traditional sign of respect. Not many in Konoha used it anyone, unless it was such-and-such occasion and you had to be especially frou-frou. Tenzou had never seen her before. She looked to be about thirteen or fourteen, with dark eyes and long, shining black hair. Tenzou had to admit that she was very pretty.
Hayate's normally pale face seemed to have received some color. It wasn't a flattering look on him: the flush turned out to be very blotchy and very, very red. Genma grinned ear-to-ear and gave Tenzou an all-knowing look.
"Gekkou-san," the girl began quietly, "your father asked me to-"
Hayate shot up from his seat and tossed the newspaper at his vacant seat. It missed the chair by a few inches and flopped to the floor.
"I'll let the nurse know you've woken up," Hayate said rapidly, his voice a long distance away from the calm Tenzou had grown used to. Hayate touched the girl's elbow and led her out of the room, speaking in a tone much too low for him to pick up on.
Tenzou looked at Genma and Raidou in bemusement. "What was that all about?"
"That was Uzuki Yuugao," said Genma. "She's something of a katana prodigy that Hayate's father has decided would be perfect match for Hayate."
"And I take it Hayate isn't... interested?" said Tenzou. From the looks of it, Hayate had been positively frightened of the girl.
Raidou raised an eyebrow. "By what I've seen, he's interested all right. Very interested."
"He just doesn't want us-well, me-pestering him about it," Genma admitted. "And he's doing a very bad job of keeping it discreet, if you ask me."
Tenzou rubbed his face. "Is this what's waiting for me when I get a girlfriend?"
"Yes," Raidou said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Genma cracked a smile. "Lucky for you they aren't exactly lining up outside the door."
Tenzou was itching to go home. He missed Bucket more than he'd ever admit aloud and, although he seldom stayed in his apartment for very long periods of time, he was beginning to miss its familiarity. Indeed there was familiarity in the dusty shelves and his window plants, as well as the calcium buildup in the shower he'd been putting off cleaning for months.
He wasn't sure if he exuded a more melancholy air than usual, but Genma's ribbing had been suspiciously mild so far.
After Hayate had left with his pseudo-girlfriend with whom he, presumably, went with to notify someone that Tenzou was ready to pack his stuff and flee, it'd taken a good hour for someone to get around to starting the discharge process.
Raidou had gone back to staring out the window rigidly and Tenzou wondered what he was trying to see. Genma took a seemingly deep interest in the placards around the room. The distraction his teammates offered was subtle and calming. Tenzou rather liked to keep it that way; he knew that the both of them had no qualms in pestering him incessantly, which would probably make his blood pressure shoot through the roof.
He picked at the loose threads on his hospital gown and made due with the company. It was a nice change to have people around. He'd already spent too many hours alone, cornered by his own thoughts.
It was a hard pill to swallow, but he liked having his new team around. Lying in the hospital bed alone had awoken something inside of him he hadn't realized was there before. Everyone was still annoying, of course. He was sure that would never change. But he was starting to care about these mismatched ninja he know called his squad.
Half an hour later, he was about ready to button-smash the call alert. Even a mean old nurse with a fondness of giving unnecessary enemas would have been better than the waiting. But Tenzou was sad to note that the device was on the side of his bad arm.
He was about to ask Genma to handle the button-smashing when the door creaked open and a young-looking clerk stepped in. She was carrying a box labeled with Tenzou's name. "You the patient?" she asked, slamming the box down on a visitor's chair. She looked unkempt and unfriendly.
He blinked. "Yes. What's-"
"This box has your personal effects. You're also being provided with civilian attire to wear home. You will also fill out all the forms contained within this folder," she tapped each item, "and return them to the front desk when they are completed."
"I understand-" he started, but was cut off when the woman held up her hand.
"That is all." And with that said, she left the room.
Raidou slid his hands into his pockets. "Everyone is very charming around here."
"Do they have to do more paperwork when we come out alive?" asked Genma.
Raidou titled his head to the side. "That would explain quite a bit."
