The only move is forward

Escort Mission Arc

Pass or Fail

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the series of Naruto. I do, however, own my original characters, ideas, and this plot.


The moment Tadashi disappeared from view, Amaya dropped to her knees. The wrapped up blonde rushed over to her, bending down to see if he could help, although he wasn't sure what to do.

"Thanks, Nitis, for getting him away. I didn't want to slow anyone down." She heaved out. It was clear the wind had been knocked out of her.

"It's fine. What's wrong with you, anyways?" He asked.

One of her arms was tightly wrapped around her ribs. "I think when we crashed I cracked a few ribs… maybe even broke one." She said. "This storm's getting worse. We can't stay out in it. The longer we're out here, the less chances of us getting to safety." She muttered.

Nitis massaged his sore side. His vision blurred a little as well, although he had no clue as to why that was. He walked over and checked out the sled. The bottom had a large crack and a small section missing from the front. He pulled at it until it moved and was back, flat on the ground. But what caught his attention was the whining from the dogs.

He walked over to them to see them squirming to get closer to the two lead dogs, Sitch and Mika. Mika was whining and lying on her side, and Sitch was slowly moving his head from side to side. It seemed to Nitis that they had hit the trees head on and had gotten hurt badly.

He walked over and took off his glove so that he could pet Mika. He felt something unusual about her shoulders and ribs, but he didn't know anything about dogs so all he could do was know where things felt wrong.

Sitch's white nose was dyed red, along with some of the snow he had been rubbing his nose in. "Come here, let me see that, boy." Nitis said. The dog tried to stand up, but fell back into sitting position, whining. Nitis was afraid to hurt the dog, so he took his time looking for the injury. There was a gash on the bridge of the red husky's nose, and it seemed like his back was hurt.

He unhooked the two from the gangline and picked Mika up first. It took a while since she wiggled around a lot because of the pain and finally he managed to get her onto the sled. It didn't take quite as long to get Sitch on. He seemed to know that Nitis was only helping him and his lead partner so he stayed still.

He walked back to Amaya, who was still sitting in the snow. A thin layer of snow had already gathered on her hat and shoulders. "C'mon, Amaya." He bent down and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. "We've got two dogs injured. Can you stand?"

She nodded. "I-I'll stand in front of you. I'm feeling a little better." She said slowly as he helped her up.

It was almost pitch black now. "Amaya, how are we going to see?" He asked.

She glared up at the sky. "We'll just have to go by instinct since we lost Ashton's tracks a long time ago. These trees must mean that we've gotten too close to the mountain range."

He didn't know the land around here, so he just went along with what the girl was saying. "Okay, but we lost both our lead dogs. Can any of the others run at the front?" He asked. The dogs that were out of view started barking.

"One of them should be able to-" Amaya turned her head and looked at the tree that they had hit. Nitis's eyes flicked in that same direction and caught the large form of the white dog that had appeared when they summoned the other sled dogs before they left. The wolf was staring at him, it's silver blue eyes so intense that it caused a shiver to go up his back. "Nitis-" Amaya started.

"I think it's okay." He replied. He put his hand out to see if the wolf would come to him. But instead, it walked over to the sled and lightly pulled on Sitch's harness until it slipped off. It carried it over to Nitis and waited for him to take it from it's mouth.

He let Amaya go and slowly put the harness on it. He was amazed at how soft the fur was on it's back because the sled dogs had ice and snow caked onto their fur, and yet she had none.

"Can you get us out of this storm?" He asked.

The wolf made a snorting sound with its nose and walked to the front of the gang line. Amaya wasn't sure what to think, so she decided to slowly walk over and fix the handle with some rope they had in the sled.

Nitis came back and asked if she was ready to go. "Yeah. If we can just get out of this wind we'll be okay." She said as she pulled the strap across her back. Nitis walked up and placed his feet on the two boards before doing the same.

He was about to call the starting command when the sled started to slowly move forward. Amaya turned her head and looked at him with a confused expression.

The sled was slowly turned around. He could barely see them, but the dogs were just walking right at the moment. He felt his hand start to burn, and remembered that he had taken his glove off. He looked through his pockets but it was gone. As a substitute he pulled his scarf off and wrapped it around his hand. The bottom of his face was cold, but it wasn't burning like his hand had been.

They started to pick up speed. Nitis hadn't heard Amaya call any commands. 'Is that wolf leading us by itself?' He wondered.

Amaya was cursing at the darkness surrounding her and her partner along with the winter storm. 'This is ridiculous! This storm should have passed over us by now with the wind speed so fast.' She thought.

Then she remembered something. "Nitis?"

He looked over her shoulder. "Yeah?"

"The wind changed direction today, right?"

"That's what you said earlier, when it was light out." He replied.

"Che. Then this storm might be longer than I anticipated. If the wind shifted and this was a long and thin storm, then we could be getting blasted with it for who knows how long."

Nitis looked up at the sky. "That's not good. But we've been getting hit by it since early this morning so hopefully it'll be over before tomorrow." He said.

"Hm, maybe. Let's hope, at the very least." She said.

After a while, both shinobi were getting drowsy, and Nitis's vision was getting worse. They had no idea how long they'd been riding or even where they were going, but they were still moving at a moderate speed.

Nitit's eyes closed for a moment to try and stop the spinning. He felt Amaya lean back on him a bit. He didn't want to open his eyes. He just wanted to sleep. He felt himself leaning back as well, and that's when his eyes snapped open.

They were on an incline. He looked around and saw trees everywhere. The wind was less vicious and there was less snow littering the ground. 'Oh no.' He mentally sighed. 'Where are we?'

Amaya was still leaning on him. He looked over her shoulder to see that she was long gone in sleep. Afraid that she would fall, he wrapped one arm around her stomach.

They soon came to a stop. This jolted Amaya out of her sleep. "Are we… where are we?" She muttered. Her head was bobbing from left to right. Even if he didn't know what it was, he had a feeling that it wasn't good.

"I don't know." Nitis muttered. He got off the sled and walked to where the white wolf was.

She was standing still; the only movement came from the wind gliding across her fur. Her gaze was staring strait ahead. He looked up and found what she was looking at. There was a small cliff ahead of them, but strait ahead, right under the cliff was a whole in the snow.

Amaya's footsteps could be heard walking towards him. "A cave?"

"Looks like it." He said. He felt relieved. This way they could stay out of the elements of their surroundings and try and wait out the storm. "Come on."

The dogs slowly started to move forward. He decided to unhook them and let them go in the cave, too. When he got to the wolf, he patted her head. "Thanks a lot. You really saved us." She tilted her head.

Amaya was looking though the busted crate. "We don't have any food." She said to herself. "We can use this crate as fire wood. I've still got some energy left to create a fire jutsu."

He nodded, grabbed the busted crate and carried it to the entrance. He couldn't see inside for anything. He set the crate down by the entrance and waited for Amaya to cast her fire jutsu on it.

She walked up to him carrying the tarp that had been covering the front end of the sled. "We can probably use this." She said.

"You go ahead and light that thing on fire. I'll go look for some sticks to keep it going." He said and walked away.

Amaya pulled a slab of the wood off of the crate and with a few hand signs, had it lit on fire. She put the lit torch up to the opening. There was enough room to crawl into, so that's what she did. She dropped to her knees and pushed the snow out of her way before crawling in.

About ten feet in, the small crawl space turned into a large open area. Stalagmites and stalactites were littering the area. They could all easily fit both dogs and humans. She called the dogs in, and all but the wolf and the two injured dogs came in.

She crawled back out and then pushed the rest of the crate in. After she lit it on fire, she sat and waited for Nitis to come.

She thought she heard something crack, but assumed it was the wood popping in the fire.

Nitis was coming back with his arms full of wood when he heard a crack as well. 'What was that?' He was sure there was no one around, so assumed it was Amaya. Sitch and Mika were lying next to each other on the sled, and the wolf was standing by the cave entrance. Her ears were back and she was looking up at the cliff.

He pushed the sticks through and crawled out into the large open area where Amaya was leaning against one of the dogs. She looked like she was about to fall asleep. He needed to ask her what to do about the two runners outside.

He stood up and walked over to her. "Amaya? Hey." She looked up at him. "Will the two dogs be okay out in the snow?" He asked.

She nodded. "Yes. You don't have to worry about them freezing. They're winter coats are more… more affective than our cloths." She closed her eyes.

Nitis felt the cave starting to warm up so he took off his coat. He put it over the slumbering girl and added a few of the smaller sticks on the fire. The dogs were all piled up behind him, so he decided to lie his head down on the one behind him and closed his eyes. 'I hope Ashton and Tadashi made it to the town.'

He sat up quickly and looked around. Something had startled him, but he didn't know what. He looked at the fire and noticed that it was almost gone. After he put a few of the larger sticks on the fire and making sure it started back up, he stood up. Amaya was asleep, but her breathing was a little ragged.

He leaned over her and pulled his jacket off her face, which she had unconsciously covered sometime or another. Her face was pale, but her cheeks were bright red. He touched her face and felt the heat rising. She had a fever.

He didn't know what to do in this sort of situation either. He felt practically worthless. Deciding that he had to go to the bathroom, he crawled out of the cave. He'd try and think of something while he was out in the cold.

'This is going to be painful.'

He thought as he unzipped his pants. He cringed at the cold. After he finished and zipped up his pants, he heard the crack again. But instead of just one crack, he heard a large number of cracks. He looked up when something started to rumble above his head.

Chunks of sharp icicles started to rain down towards him. "What the hell!?" He jumped out of the way as an icicle the size of his body landed mere inches away from him. "Uh-oh." He muttered.

He had to keep jumping out of the way so that the shards of ice didn't hit him. He created a shadow clone to push the dogsled as close as it could go to the cave since nothing seemed to be falling there. Moments latter a massive amount of snow roared over him. It reminded him of a waterfall, how it poured over the edge of the cliff.

He wasn't paying attention because something sharp stung at his shoulder and back. He fell to the ground with a thump as he went blind with pain. He darted back into the cave, dragging his sore arm.

Amaya had woken up and was trying to move towards the entrance when he scurried in. "Nitis? What's happening- What happened to your arm? You're bleeding all over the place!" She raised her voice.

All he could see was white and silver, and all he felt was pain. It was spreading down his back and his arm had gone numb. He could hear Amaya coughing.

He tried to shake the pain away but nothing was working. Something was pulling at his shirt.

It was Amaya. She couldn't get the shirt off, so she pulled out a kunai and sliced it off. She was shocked to see all his protective gear smashed and ripped. She had felt the ground rumbling and something roaring above. Then, right before Nitis dived in, she had seen something surrounded by silver.

She wasn't thinking strait, felt hot, and yet, she felt cold as well. She took the jacket that she had found on her and put it under his head as she rolled him on his stomach so she could see the gash.

It ran all the way down to the top of his pants, down the top of his shoulder and arm… and it was deep, very deep. Blood was oozing out at such a horribly fast pace that she couldn't even think of where to start. His face was turned towards her, and she noticed that the goggle's strap had a brown stain on it. She took off the goggles that he had left and found a small injury on his head.

Without thinking, she pushed the wound together with her hands. The blood made it difficult to keep it together, but if she could just keep it together until it slowed down or dried shut, then she'd be able to wrap it.

The cold seemed to be on her side, because the wound dried quickly and stayed shut just long enough for her to get into her pack. She pulled out the gauze and white training tape and placed the gauze on the large wound on his back. The training tape took a long time to get around his body.

"Nitis?" She muttered. "Are you okay?" She asked. "We have to leave in the morning, Nitis." She continued to murmur to herself until she fell asleep next to the injured boy.

XxXxXxX

Tadashi was being thoroughly scolded by his cousin. In fact, he was slightly annoyed at himself as well. After he caught up with Ashton, which was extremely difficult on its own, Ashton had asked where the other two were. After Tadashi had explained what had happened, he could hear how he was tricked by Nitis and Amaya by them saying that the mission was top priority.

He hadn't checked to make sure neither of them was hurt.

Ashton said he wasn't worried too much about the storm, but said that if they had been hurt in anyway, that being in the storm would increase the danger they were in. "How'd you even become a Chuunin?" The white haired teen asked.

The storm was over and the bright moon was out, illuminating the area. It had ended around one in the morning, and the minute it did Ashton had both him and his cousin back onto the sled, trying to remember around what direction they had come from. But, they had been running for over an hour and still hadn't found anything besides the tree line.

"This is crazy. Do you see the area were you crashed? Surely the tree had to take some sort of damage-"

"There!" Tadashi yelled, pointing to the tree. Ashton had to shush him. There was a portion of the bark that was torn off. The called the dogs to halt and rushed over. The now had long since covered any sort of tracks, and now it was even deeper than before. It was up to their knees in this area, so it made walking a little more difficult than before. "Tadashi, you busted the sled up, right?"

Tadashi nodded. "Yeah, the base was smashed a little, so it wouldn't have been able to keep up or even go anywhere out in that."

Ashton ran his gloved fingers over the deep scar in the tree that had been created barely a few hours earlier. "I bet some of the dogs hit head on were hurt. Did you check?"

"I checked, but the back dogs wouldn't let me through to see the front runners."

"They were probably all a little hurt." Ashton muttered. "But if the sled was damaged, where could they have gone?"

Tadashi started to walk in to the trees where the snow was thinner. "Probably this way. Come on."

They trudged through the ankle deep snow for ten minutes before they came across a large snow wall. "Look, Tadashi. There was an avalanche here." He whispered as he grabbed his cousin's arm, stopping him from moving forward. "I hope they didn't get caught in that. That man said this area was prone to avalanches during the winter."

Tadashi felt a stab of fear. If the two had been caught in the avalanche, he would never forgive himself. He was about to try and climb onto the mound of snow when he heard something near by. He turned to Ashton to see if he had heard it too.

Ashton nodded and pointed to the right. The two crept as quietly as they could through the snow, careful not to startle anything or make any unnecessary noises. The sound came again. It was a low wailing sound that seemed to carry far into the night.

The new sound of fast, crunching snow coming in their direction made them both dart behind a tree. Ashton looked around the tree base, a kunai held tightly in his gloved hand.

A small, dark figure came to a halt where Ashton and Tadashi had been walking seconds before. It turned its head in the opposite direction before smelling the air and turning to look directly at the two Abyss Chuunins. It yipped at them, its pointed ears twitching slightly. Then, it jumped up, barking twice.

Tadashi walked closer, showing himself. "Ashton, that's one of the lead dogs on my sled. They're nearby." He said.

"Yeah, but where?" He whispered.

Sitch sat down and whined. Tadashi bent down and rubbed the snow dog. "You're hurt. Look, Ashton. His nose is cut up a little."

"Yeah? Well, then let's keep looking. We'll need him to help us find Nitis and Amaya."

Tadashi nodded. "Right!"

The dog walked with a limp, but otherwise seemed fine. He'd let out a small yip, and the wailing sound would quickly fill the air. Finally, Sitch stopped and turned to the teens.

"Whoa. Look at the size of these…" Ashton said. He walked up and put his hand on the human sized tower of ice. His dark blue eyes looked up. "Tadashi, be careful, there's a cliff up there. There might be more of these."

Tadashi wasn't listening. He was looking at a hole in the snow. Sitch dug at the snow by the hole, giving Tadashi the idea that maybe the others were under the heavy blanket. "Alright. Let's get started." He muttered, putting his hands into the snow.

It didn't take long for the sled and the other injured dog to be dug out. She weakly lifted her head and licked Tadashi's face. "Tadashi, I don't think that Nitis and Amaya are with the sled." Ashton muttered.

"I think… you might be right. But where are they?" The brunette asked.

Their answer was the sound of claws scratching at rock. They both turned and waited, watching the area where the scraping sound was coming from. A moment latter, an odd, white shape pushed though the snow.

'What…?'

They both thought. Neither knew what was coming out of the snow. First it was the top of a white nose, then a white snout. Soon, almost an entire head was trying to push through.

"It's that wolf!" Tadashi almost yelled again. The large white head disappeared and a paw appeared, trying to dig out of her hole.

Sitch limped over to the hole and used his good paw to try and help the wolf out. It didn't take her long, but Ashton and Tadashi were confused. The wolf crawled out, shook the snow off her gorgeous fur. She whined, running up to Ashton and tugging on his sleeve with her teeth. She let go and darted back to the hole she crawled out of.

Tadashi bent down and looked in. "This hole's about five feet deep-"

"No, listen!" Ashton said. More scraping and whining could be heard coming from behind the small tunnel of snow. "Damn, I bet they're in here!" He hissed. 'If only I knew some fire jutsu.' He thought.

Tadashi couldn't get in the hole with Ashton, so he continued to help the injured dogs and get the busted sled out of its snow casket. "Tadashi, dig out some of this snow so that I don't get caught in here." Ashton ordered.

After a while, Ashton stopped. He sighed and looked at the wall of snow in front of him. 'How far in could they be?' He wondered. He could here the dogs on the other side, but for some reason it seemed like he wasn't getting any closer. It didn't help that the snow was practically solid, being tightly packed into such a small area.

"Damn." He growled, hitting his fist against the wall of snow. The second he took his hand away, the wall crumbled and the path was slightly illuminated by a warm glow. "Heh." He army crawled his way through the next few feet until he entered the cavern, a dark colored dog backing up and making room for him.

He pushed himself up and stretched his arm behind his head as he walked over to the two slumbering teens. As he walked, it sounded as if he was walking in a water puddle. He looked down and noticed a thin line of light shimmering on the floor. He decided against checking it out since he needed to get to the others first.

The dogs all wagged their tails, but the three lying around Nitis and Amaya just lifted their heads. "I'm here, you two." He whispered. He bent over and looked at the two sleeping figures. He pulled Nitis's jacket back, since it was being used to cover both their upper torsos.

Blood. It was everywhere. He searched frantically for the source and easily found the large wound on Nitis's chest. It ran down his arm, too, but it seemed like Amaya had tried to give as much first aide as she could. He looked a little closer once he unwrapped a portion of his chest, pulling the skin apart at the center.

He sighed with relief. The wound wasn't as deep as he thought. It was serious, but nothing that would kill him for a couple of days. He quickly checked Amaya, but all she had was a fever and a broken rib.

As he wrapped Nitis back up, Amaya stirred, but never woke up. She only continued to mutter, "he's dying," and "the blood won't stop."

'There is a lot of blood. Where'd it all come from anyways? Nitis couldn't have bled that badly.'

He continued to think. He tried to get Amaya to wake up. "Amaya. C'mon sweetie. If you don't I'll have Tadashi come in here and get you." He said in a sing song tone.

Her eyes moved underneath her eyelids. Finally, her eyes cracked open and she saw her sempai. "Sempai…?" She sat upright. "Sempai! Nitis is hurt-!"

"Shh. You'll set off an avalanche. And Nitis'll be okay."

"But… he wouldn't stop bleeding. I could see his bones in some places-."

He frowned and pulled his hand out of its glove. "You must be hallucinating." He muttered as he put his hand to her forehead. "Probably. That or you were having a bad dream."

She stood up. "N-no, Sempai! I know what I saw-" He grabbed her arms lightly.

"Amaya, it's okay. He'll. Be. Fine." He said slowly. "Now you crawl out to Tadashi, I'll take care of everything here."

She looked down at Nitis and looked at her sloppy first aide. 'I know what I saw, Sempai.' She thought as she dropped to her knees and crawled out.

Tadashi had long since got the other injured dog out and had gotten the sled out, too. He looked around for the wolf, but once she was done, she had disappeared. He looked over and spotted someone coming out.

He walked over to the person as they made their way out. Bending down to look in, he could see it was Amaya. "Hey, you- What happened?!" He almost yelled. The red stains were visible even in the bright moon light.

He reached down to help her up by putting his arm under hers. Once standing, he could tell she was hurt. "Where'd all that blood come from?" He demanded.

His tone startled her. "It's N-nitis's… blood. Sempai s-said he'd be okay." She chattered.

Seeing she was cold, he took his top layer jacket off and made her put it on. He could feel the heat radiating off of her though all his layers. Unwrapping his face, he put his forehead on hers. "Your fever is five degrees higher than it should be." He muttered, straitening up. "Go sit in the sled." He ordered.

If she had had more energy, she would have punched the Chuunin for the way he took her temperature, but since she was lacking in the energy department, she simply nodded and stumbled over to the good sled.

Soon, the dogs walked out of the hole, closely followed by Ashton, who was slowly dragging Nitis out on the tarp that they had taken in.

"Is he okay?" Tadashi asked, hovering over the unconscious body. He had really gotten attached to the boy since he had moved in and didn't like seeing him like this.

Ashton nodded. "He's cut up pretty badly, but he'll survive. We need to get them back into town."

XxXxXxXxX

Kalari sat in her office chair, tapping her foot against the edge of her desk as she sat with one leg crossed. 'Those brats are a day and a half late.' She thought irritably. The only upside to this was that this was the one squad that didn't have any aggravating relatives coming to visit every two hours, asking where their loved one was or if they were back.

Ashton was her son, and since her husband was dead, there was nobody there since she couldn't complain to herself.

Tadashi was Keru and Kanda's son, but their complaints never came and she could just ignore them anyways.

Amaya was an orphan whose sister has been labeled MIA from her trip, so no one there.

And Nitis, who, even if he had family, he was just some poor kid who had their memories knocked loose.

Basically… no complaints for the missing squad. It was easier on her this way.

She knew exactly who was at fault for their lateness, too. It was always Tadashi. No matter what the situation, it wouldn't have happened if Tadashi had or hadn't done something.

The door handle turned, taking her out of her daze. She looked up and was relieved to see the squad she had just been thinking about walking in. It did surprise her that Nitis had a bandage wrapped tightly around his head and his arm was in a sling. The only thing Kalari could think about now was how the blonde kid could come in looking like he was in a serious battle.

She stayed seated, staring at them. The only movement came from her continuously tapping foot on her desktop. She knew that her son would be the first to talk because he got this treatment daily.

"We apologize for returning so late-"

"I wonder if you are, Ashton." She said coolly. "Two days late, too. It could only be cause by my irresponsible nephew." She said, her eyes narrowing and redirecting themselves to the brunette.

"Hey now, it's not always my fault."

"Was it this time?"

"Well… maybe just a little."

"I see. Anyways, you two go write your reports. I'll take care of these two." She said, waving her hand to shoo the two Chuunin. Once they were gone, she looked at the two leftover.

"You're both hurt?" she asked.

They nodded.

"I see. It looks like you both should go to the hospital, let me see now…" She turned and looked out her window. "There we go- Reno! Get in here!" She called out after pushing the glass up.

Both teens could hear the familiar redhead yell back "why?!"

"Because I said so! Now get in here!" She closed the window to avoid have any more cold coming into her office and because she didn't want to give him the chance to say no.

She rotated in her chair and looked at the two teens again. "Okay you two. I want a verbal report from you. Sweet, simple, and to the point, please. Those two will be in detail and they usually make up something here and there to make it sound better." She said, leaning forward on her hand. "And do it before that wild child comes in."

Nitis glanced at Amaya. The people at the town gave her some medicine, but her fever never broke, so she was still ill, couldn't eat, and Ashton said she was a little delirious.

He leaned forward a little. "Ok… this is how it went; we were on course, then a storm started coming so re tried to outrun it. Failed. The dogs on our sled were hurt so I told Tadashi to catch up with Ashton. Me and Amaya got caught in an avalanche, I got hit by large chunks of ice. They found us. I'm hurt and Amaya's sick and delusional. The end."

She smirked. "I like it. If need be, you can come in later after you're rested up and give me a few more details if I don't find my boys' reports to be… completely true." She looked up. "There you are, Reno. I need you to escort these two to the hospital."

"Why me?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Didn't you just tell me yesterday when your team got back that you wanted to learn some medical ninjutsu because you kept hurting your allies instead of your enemies?"

"Well, yeah, I suppose."

"And I looked over your files and your Jonin sensei commented on your excellent chakra control. That is a very crucial key in medical ninjutsu." He stared blankly at her. "I'll tell you later. Just get those two to the hospital." She tilted her head a bit to the side. "I'll come see you two later, okay. I'm going to tell Kanda that her new child is back."

Reno smirked and put his hand on Nitis's head. "She's talking about you, ya'know."

He looked up at Reno. "Really? You mean Kanda didn't miss Tadashi?"

Reno shook his head, thinking how dense this kid was some times. "Never mind. Come on, kiddies. I'll lead the way on our journey to the hospital!" He said gleefully.

Nitis thought of something. "Hey… Reno?"

The redhead looked over his shoulder. "Hmm?"

"Do you have any weapons on you?" He asked cautiously, hoping the answer was no.

XxXxXxXxX

The blonde winced as the doctor slowly moved his arm up and down, trying to stretch the muscles. "It's odd…" Gota muttered. "Some of your muscles were torn, but more like they were ripped into, but your injury isn't all that bad. It could be from a previous injury, but what are the chances of getting an identical injury?"

Nitis shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. All of this medical talk just confuses me." He said.

Gota laughed and turned his head when Amaya and a nurse walked it. She looked a little grumpy, but she seemed batter than before. She took a seat next to Nitis. "What's with that face?" He asked.

She crossed her arms. "I can't do any physical training or lift anything over ten pounds until my rib is better. I had to have a shot to strengthen my immune system, and the medicine I have to take tastes like puke."

"Hmm." He smiled. "Better you than me-"

"Don't say that, Nitis. You're getting some, too. You know, to break that small fever you have." Gota turned to the nurse who had been treating Amaya and took the small cup filled with a dark colored liquid. "Here."

Nitis made a sour face, and Amaya grinned evilly. "It's what you get, Nitis." She whispered.

He gulped and took the cup. Tipping the cup upwards, he dumped it into his mouth. But it wouldn't last. The moment it settled on his tongue, his body rejected the substance and he spit it out… onto Gota. Feeling terrified, he sputtered out. "I-I'm… I'm sorry!"

Gota laughed. "I get that reaction a lot. I've had worse on me, but what'd you expect it to taste like? Candy?"

Nitis looked down. "Well, no… but I didn't expect it to taste so… disgusting."

Amaya gave him her 'I told you so' look.

"Well, other than that, you two are free to go." Gota said, straitening up. "I'm going to clean myself up, so take care." He said as he walked out of the room.

Nitis and Amaya sat there for a while, not moving and not talking. Finally, Nitis spoke up. "Well, what now?"

"I guess we go home." She said. Nitis stood up, and she looked up at him suspiciously as she did the same. "You know, Nitis, that injury you got is almost like you were just scratched. But… there was all that blood in the cave and I know it didn't come from me. And I remember it oozing out of that monster injury. How could it already be almost healed?"

He stopped and looked back at her. "I don't know. I know it really hurt, and you were yelling a little… but I never saw how bad it was. I'll say that it has healed faster than the last time I got hurt, though. Ashton said I could have died from it if I didn't take care of it, but now it isn't even anything to worry about."

"I guess." She muttered. Her head was starting to spin. "Well, I'll see you later. I need to get home." She said once they got outside.

Nitis told her he'd walk with her. "You still have a fever. You could collapse and Ashton and Tadashi wouldn't be too pleased with me if that happened."

She huffed. "You have a fever, too."

"So. It's not as bad as yours. Look, steam's coming off of your head." He said, pointing to the visible heat leaving her body. She soon gave in.

Amaya's home wasn't as big as the one he was staying in, but it was livable for a small family. It had two bedrooms, the living room and kitchen were in one and the same, a bathroom, and a small room for miscellaneous things. Unlike Tadashi's house, this house had all wooden floors so he had to take his boots off before coming in.

Amaya pulled her coat off and sat on a cushion on the floor. "Sorry. There's not much here. My sister and I never had much since our parents died." She sighed.

Nitis didn't want to say anything inappropriate or something that would make her mad. Spending the last two weeks with her had shown him that she has a temper. Some people would say she's a short fuse.

Something caught his eye. Hanging on the far wall was an old fashioned fan made of large feathers. The handle was black and had gold trimming the grip and the round ball at the end. The feathers were as white as snow.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing to the fan.

Amaya looked over at it. "Oh, that? I don't know. It's always been there since as long as I can remember. My mom told me that it's precious, but I can't remember why."

"You're pretty forgetful, aren't you?" He replied smoothly. "Forgetting what my wound looked like, forgetting what direction we were headed in. You were even late for our mission-"

"Nitis! You can't talk much. I saw you and Tadashi running in front of me. You guys were just as late as me." She took a breath, then smiled. Slowly, they started to laugh.

"Hey Amaya. While we're healing, could you teach me some more about weather pattern? It was really helpful and I have no idea about any of it." He asked after they stopped laughing.

"Sure."

"What's going on here?" Kalari's voice trailed in, startling the two teens. She walked in after removing her shoes, followed by Ashton and Tadashi.

"We didn't know where you guys ran off to." Ashton said.

"Sorry." They muttered.

Kalari looked around the room. Nobody had been in here for the longest time. The last time she had been here was when their mother died. She looked back at them. "Well, I'm here to give your evaluation."

Amaya nodded. "I understand."

Kalari pulled a piece of paper out and looked at it. "Ashton said that he believes you are very capable to be a genin, showing great intelligence concerning the path and the weather. Your ability to stay calm in a situation is also very calming to my nerves seeing as we have a lot of hot heads."

'You're probably looking at the biggest hot head in this village.'

Nitis thought with a sideways glance away from everyone.

"Being able to improvise and find shelter in such a dangerous place is also well looked upon. That's why I'm promoting you to Genin and placing you on a genin team after you're healed. Nitis-"

"Hmm?" He looked away from the fan he'd been looking at. "What?"

"You'll also be promoted,"

"What?!" all four teens cried out, clearly surprised by this call. "-but you're banned from going on out of town missions until I can send you out without worrying. You've got some skills, but with your memory condition I'm going to wait. Until then, you can take level 4 missions in the village."

Nobody spoke.

Kalari tilted her head. "What?"

"Are you sure? I mean… I'm nobody. All I can do is walk on walls and make a clone-"

"A shadow clone, Nitis." Tadashi corrected.

"Yeah. And I mean, I just want to remember who I am-"

"I told you before, Nitis. This is how you're going to pay rent for us letting you live here. And besides, if you can already do things like that, then I'm positive you were a ninja from another village. Just trust me on this and you'll be fine. That's all." She finished and walked out.

Ashton, Tadashi, and Amaya all looked at Nitis to see what his final reaction would be. He looked back at them. "I didn't expect this." He muttered.

The other three practically crashed to the floor.


END ESCORT MISSION ARC


Preveiw-

"Reno! Would you please not do that!" Nitis yelled as he caught the kunai that had accidentally been released from Reno's hand. A thin cut line appeared on his hand. He glared at it for a short while. "Aren't you supposed to be at Kalari's office? I thought you were leaving today?" He said, looking up at the taller teen.

The redhead shrugged. "Yeah. But I'm not being transported there, I'm going by foot so I can leave whenever I want."

'Bummer. That means I have to keep my guard up for a little longer.'

He was still constantly injured by the clumsy Chuunin but because of his training he could usually just get away with small cuts or bruises.

"Why are you leaving again? To learn how to not injure poor bystanders like myself?" He asked, his voice clearly being wary of the older teen.

Reno smacked him on the head. "Quiet, you misfit. And no. I'm going to learn medical ninjutsu-"

"So you can heal the people you injure?" Nitis asked sarcastically. This earned him another smack.

Reno wrapped one arm around the younger boy's neck. "Well, truthfully, your right. But saying it like that makes it seem like I just want to learn it to et myself out of trouble. I actually do want to help people, and this woman said she's willing to teach anyone who wants to learn medical ninjutsu. She even wrote in her letter that she'd even teach an enemy, because people who know medical ninjutsu have compassion and will heal anyone before letting someone die- Hey! You're not even listening Nitis!"

Nitis had already started to walk away. He was walking towards a boy with wild, sky blue hair. "Hey Yusuke. Have you seen Ashton? Tadashi disappeared before I woke and now I can't find either of them."

Yusuke shrugged. "Nah, I haven't seen them- Oh! But Maria Sensei said that their sensei came back from his mission so maybe they went to see him."

Yay for finishing the Escort mission arc! I hate the snow, and writing about it was just as bad. The preview was just because I didn't stop writing. It's based in the spring, so there's a few months in between the two arcs. I have to say that the EMA didn't come out completely how I wanted it. It got a little slow so I just sped up the process and finsihed it in one chapter. Why drag it out and make it even more horrible than it already is, right? :) I did think that I had put a new idea into the naruverse, but I forgot that in the first movie Kakashi used a dogsled -- So much for that. I was watching it the other day and when I saw that part all I could say was damn.

Also, I'm sorry I didn't post last week. I thought I'd have all weekend free during my spring break, but little cousins happened and... well... it's hard to write and watch kids. This time, however, I will not promise any time about when it'll be updated because I truthfully have no idea. Schools getting closer to the end (I'm graduating in 29days +- a day or two) So I'm working on that, which is more importaint. But I am still working on getting out of this nonwriting hole I dug myself into. I think it was the cold... I hate it (as stated above) Well. thanks for reading!

Blackblaze