The Unsung Story of the Inconspicuous

A/N: Welcome to the Christmas chapter.

Thank you Vanya, for working through the holiday.

I do not own Naruto or any of its characters or affiliates.


Raiku did not often dream. But stuck in a comfortable, medicine-scented haze in the warm dark was proving to be an acceptable substitute. When she was aware enough to take in the pictures and sounds her brain provided for subconscious entertainment she found herself in the middle of nowhere. Standing on water, without chakra or sinking, she looked around her, taking in the faintly salty breeze that lightly lifted her hair from her face and the complete absence of land or people in either way. The water simply stretched on without break or disturbance for as far as she could see, under a sky with faint white clouds failing to obscure the gentle sunlight, and as she looked down into the impenetrable blue depths she saw lightning spread and flicker outwards from her feet, oddly whole instead of diffusing. She smiled to herself faintly crouching down and running a bare hand over the wet surface and watching electricity spread from each fingertip and follow the movement, pulling back a wet hand none the worse for wear.

She looked back down with detached curiosity; tilting her head and watching her reflection do the same. And if she tilted enough, and moved her knee, she'd be able to see her own face without self-consciousness or embarrassment, because it was just her, wearing pale, simple clothes and no masks. But when she shifted the water clouded and evaporated and she was gone, back into the simple dark and the lingering smell of antiseptic.


When she was aware for the first time after the upheaval of Konoha, someone was screaming and lights were flashing, hurting her eyes as it traded from bright to dark too quickly for her to be able to adjust. There was a glow and a frightened rush of light because there were hands everywhere and she wasn't telling it what to do why wasn't she telling it what to do? She didn't really know and she could have sworn she was- wasn't she? It was confusing and tiring but she didn't want to hurt anyone so why …?

She fell asleep before she could find out what was going on.


The next time she woke up she was far more aware, but in a lot more pain. Her head ached dully, the pain putting pressure on the back of her eyes and radiating outwards down her neck. She grumbled and screwed her eyes further shut, arm moving to rub her temple. Only she wasn't, because there was something on her arm that was stopping her, keeping it firmly anchored to something else. She tried the other and found it similarly inconvenienced. She twitched when a piece of hair blew over onto her forehead- bare forehead, when had that happened?- and tried to send it back from whence it came by tilted her head slightly.

She wrinkled her nose when that failed, brow furrowing in annoyance. She heard a faint sigh and something brushed over her forehead, the familiar texture of fabric sending the hair back to the side.

'Nuisance,' someone muttered. They raised their voice slightly. 'Are you awake?'

Her nose itched, moisture collecting in the corners of her eyes before she sneezed explosively. She groaned slightly as the movement forced sore abdominal muscles to contract and eased herself back onto the bed with exaggerated care.

'I'll take that as a yes.' Alright. Only one person would treat the infirm with such flippancy. Ryuu was here.

She opened her eyes to pure white. Well, mostly pure. Actually, now that she could try and focus her eyes, it was sort of oddly patterned… okay, it was a bandage. Why were there bandages over her eyes?

'Your … thing freaked out when you were healing and the wattage in your eyes shot up. It lit up the room through your eyelids and it kept the other patients awake, so they bandaged you up.'

She hadn't realised she'd been speaking out loud. That was a little embarrassing. She usually prided herself on her self-awareness (when it came to everything but speech). She shifted her captured arm listlessly, silently asking for yet another explanation.

'What, the arm thing?'

She nodded feebly, swallowing.

'When they tried to fix you up, no one from your family had gotten here yet. So they try to patch you up the normal way, skin and everything, you did… what you do, and exploded. You hurt a few people, I think you killed one. Or almost killed, I didn't really pay attention. Medics piss me off, so I was really just happy to hear some good news.'

Raiku made a feeble sound of acknowledgement. Or maybe it was annoyance. She wasn't quite sure at this point.

'Anyway,' Ryuu sighed. 'They thought you might have been doing it on purpose, so they settled on soft cuffing you to the bed. Then, when you barbecued even more people and set off the fire alarms when their clothes burst into flame, they figured out it wasn't you being a bitch, primarily because you were fucking unconscious, the morons-'

Raiku twitched.

She could feel Ryuu rolling his eyes. 'I swear. Deal with it. Continuing. So then they covered you up and pretty much wasted all the chakra they had on hand to heal you without having to touch you by stitching you up, etcetera. Then they splinted you when the casts and traction failed because you started a fire-'

It seemed a little farfetched that she could cause all this trouble without being awake for it.

'…And here we are. Or here I am, because when the flower boy showed up his mother chewed him out for getting caught in the stadium genjutsu and not being around to protect you. 'Course, even if he had been awake he wouldn't have been much help, since he's not really built for our brand of last-ditch travel.'

Raiku felt a little like saying that she wasn't either, but accepted the implied compliment.

'He should be back soon. Anything else…? Yes. Yamada's in the maternity ward. His kid is the creepiest thing ever. I swear, if I didn't know better, I'd say his mother's genes staged a hostile takeover and eliminated all traces of Yamada DNA.'

She paused, letting that sink in and quietly drawing conclusions. '…I'm pretty beat up, huh,' she croaked painfully, wincing as her dry throat protested loudly.

Ryuu clicked his teeth. 'Yep. How'd you guess?' he asked sarcastically.

'You only talk this much… when someone's hurt.'

She heard him snort. 'Guess so. Oh, and you've got the stupid mask on since someone from your family eventually got here, spouting some bullshit about how they thought you'd died already. Want it off? Or do you want the bandages off your eyes? One or the other.'

'Bandages… please.'

'No way. You're unhealthy for the other patients. They stay on.'

She frowned. 'But you just... What other patients?'

Ryuu paused.

She heard him start to chuckle.

'You'll see. But I could let your arms out, if you want.'

'I want-'

'Wait, no, you'd probably kill us all. Right, right. I forgot about that. You're just a violent killing machine. Ferocious and deadly.'

Now he was just making fun of her.

She frowned, even though with all but her forehead fully hidden he wouldn't have been able to tell. 'Ryuu…' she began wearily, hearing a bit of a whine creep into her voice, flinching as her fingers twitched, starting to wake up and clearly incredibly unhappy about it.

He made a disapproving sound. 'Want more painkillers?'

'…No…'

'Are you sure?'

She considered this point, conceded defeat because really, who was she trying to impress here, and nodded sadly.

She heard the slide of fabric against fabric and a faint click. Something brushed over her forehead. 'See you on the other side, toaster.'

She dimly registered the sound of a door sliding. 'Did you just- stop that! Toaster, you still with me here?... Damn it, Ryuu!'

'People who are in pain want painkillers, halfwit. She asked me to!'

'Sure she did, bastard! You just want her to think I didn't show up!'

'Look, you freckled-faced, pint-sized moron, I've got better things to do than-'

Falling asleep to the familiar sound of the bickering of her teammates, Raiku found herself in a large space, with nothing but perfectly still water and an endless sky.


It was in the very, very early morning or maybe just very, very late at night when she was next woken. For a while she simply lay awake without registering anything had changed, sending pale light into the moonlit room from gradually focusing eyes. She slowly moved an arm and was content with the restored range of movement, twisting her wrists to test the restored bone and sliding a foot up to bend her knee. Quietly satisfied, she turned on her side towards the window, happy to fall asleep again.

'Gairano... Raiku.'

Alright. Equaliser. There would be no falling asleep. If she could throw herself off the bed and yank it up to use as a shield as she did so, that would give her enough time to set off the alarm-

'Don't... worry.'

If an Equaliser could betray emotion, it would have been amusement in this instance.

She blinked, caution evident.

The Equaliser turned towards the window, looking out over the village. 'Your ... exploits ... are eclipsed... by the day. You... live.'

'That's... nice,' she said, a faint wheeze barely audible in her voice. So the nigh-destruction of Konoha gave her a get-out-of-Equaliser-free card? Killing one of their own would be ignored?

A low sound. She couldn't tell what it would have been without the mask. 'And... Your wishes... for the other... A-Motive?'

She tried to think. It was Mura. Mura was not her responsibility anymore- she had no right to determine her fate. And as much as she wanted revenge, it would be stupid to exact it now.

She'd had enough. She couldn't take responsibility for Mura's life. It was too heavy, and dragged her down with a weight she couldn't understand. That she might never understand.

'Not your business,' she said, shifting her pillow and getting comfortable. Or mine.

The silhouette of the Equaliser showed their nod, standing against the backdrop of Konoha. '...Understood.'

A sliver of yellow light fell upon the wall, the glass pane in the door lit up from behind as the night staff prepared to do their rounds again. When she looked back, the Equaliser was gone.

She paused for a moment, then turned and screamed into her pillow, shoulders shaking as the tension she hadn't realised was building was abruptly released. A low groan alerted her to the presence of another patient in her room and she immediately stopped and with shaking hands, replaced her pillow. With a sort of hysterical amusement, she noticed that there was no heart monitor connected to her, and because it was either laugh or cry, she was laughing as she fell into the dark.


A/N: The time skip approaches... thank god. The last thing I wanted was to detail Raiku's puberty. The sex talk I'm less eager to miss.

Reviews:

Dermonster: That's the spirit, embrace your inner sadist! Thanks for reviewing.

Dureth: She has nightmares in which she is in a dark room, with the words 'believe it!' echoing around her. Oh, she was afraid. Thanks for reviewing!

Impatiens Psittacina: I could send an Equaliser to her, but then I'd violate previous rules about their missions... Ah well. Thanks for reviewing.

envysXsin: Raiku's cowardice and inner patheticness actually bely her more efficient and naturally vicious actions- picture it. Thanks for reviewing!

Blinkin: Ah, taking the time to give me more hints about Ryuu, eh!? I'm so onto you. Your anticipation is warranted, and that's all I'll say. Thanks for reviewing.

XxXTwilight-SinXxX: Raiku only ever gets the short end of the stick. She wouldn't know what to do with an advantage. Mura's sort of in an odd place... I may redeem or revenge upon her. Thanks for reviewing.