Hello, people! Have the next chapter! I'm super excited, because I finally smashed through my writers block (and my slump) so I've dived headfirst back into HtS *rubs hands gleefully*
Hear the Silence
Chapter Forty Nine
Kyo wasn't really sure where, exactly, she was, or how much time had passed since she'd made her quick escape from Tsunade's clutches, but she couldn't find it in herself to care.
She curled even more firmly down into herself, pressing her forehead against her raised knees.
At least no one was bothering her here.
Which might have had something to do with the fact she was sitting in a nook in an out-of-the-way alley, completely out of sight and chakra fully suppressed, what little of it she still had available, anyway.
Tou-san might have been able to find her, but she didn't even know if he was in the village right now or out on the border somewhere.
…her face hurt.
Tsunade hadn't gotten around to do anything about her probably-broken nose. Not that Kyo blamed her, because there'd definitely been more important issues to deal with.
Like Naoki. Like her stupid foot.
Kyo took a deep breath through her mouth, eyes still closed, and tried to think about this rationally.
Everyone was still alive -if not whole- and... again, that was as far as she got before her thoughts stuttered to a stop. Like every time before she'd tried the same.
It wasn't working.
The sounds and feel of Konoha around her eventually changed, the bustle of the afternoon slowly and steadily changing into the liveliness of evening; people returning home, going out to eat at any of the numerous restaurants, going drinking and what not.
Which slowly turned into the night crowd moving around.
There was the sound of distant, off-key singing making its way into her small spot of alley, and when she cracked her swollen eyes open, it was mostly dark out now.
She should probably go home.
Or go find Katsurou-sensei.
Kyo couldn't find the motivation to uncurl herself and get up.
Her foot hurt, her face hurt, her chest hurt...
She hadn't taken a hit to the chest, right? Right.
But then again; who knew what the hell had been wrong with her back, before Tsunade had fixed it, which might have left an impact.
Kyo stubbornly refused to acknowledge that her chest could hurt from reasons other than physical trauma.
She'd grown attached. Even when she'd tried not to.
What was even the use? If this was what would happen every time?
Kyo wanted to curl up in her bed, preferably with Genma hugged safely to her chest, and sleep for a week.
Another moment stretched out as it passed her by, her own quiet breathing the only sound in her ears.
...was she really this self-centred?
Kyo wasn't the one lying in a hospital bed right now, having lost- drugged up to the eye-balls and with a difficult recovery waiting ahead of her. No.
As always, she was just fine. Somehow beating all odds and getting out of scrape after scrape without much to show for it.
It wasn't fair.
She'd already gotten a shot at life, in a place that was so peaceful compared to this place it was almost laughable.
And she would laugh at it, if she didn't think it would make her cry.
None of the people around her now had ever experienced peace like she had. In a different body, different life, different world, but still.
The memories were there.
The air was getting chilled around her, and it reminded Kyo about the fact her clothes where still caked with slightly damp mud and probably dried or drying blood.
Shivering ever so slightly, she wrapped her arms more tightly around her legs, sucking in a lungful of night air and letting it go in a soft sigh.
Night had well and truly fallen when the sound of soft, hurried footsteps approached her hiding place.
"Very near, now," a familiar voice muttered, as if to herself, and the footsteps quickly drew closer.
"Kyo?" Another voice asked, sounding worried and hopeful, at the same time as there was a sense of exhaustion pulling on the tone as well.
"Found her!" Kisaki stated, and next Kyo knew, a cold, wet nose pressed gently against her arm. "Kyo," she sighed.
"Are you okay? You've been gone for hours," Minato said breathlessly, crouching down in front of her.
Kyo peered at her team-mate's concerned blue eyes. His blond hair looked more grey in the shadows and lack of light in the alleyway.
She stared from Minato to Kisaki and back repeatedly in confusion.
"You shouldn't have left the hospital," Minato said quietly, looking worried. There was something about the cast to his face that made her think he looked lost.
Like he didn't know what to do other than what he was currently occupying himself with.
Kyo managed a low, rough laugh that died before it had had a chance to fully form.
"You smell hurt," Kisaki said into the following silence, glancing between her and Minato. "Minato came to get me, because no one could find you," she said next, wedging her snout in under Kyo's arm to give her a gentle nudge. "You're injured."
"It's fine," Kyo dismissed blandly. "Medic's already looked at it."
The utterly unconvinced look Kisaki levelled her with was impressive.
"Come," she said firmly, voice brokering no argument.
Kyo couldn't find it in herself to put up a fight.
Listlessly, she allowed Kisaki and Minato to pull her up from the ground and then up onto the ninken's strong back.
Cheek pressed against Kisaki's soft, warm fur, she watched the ally slowly slip passed them as the dog began to walk back to the hospital, pace slow and careful as to avoid jarring her.
She glanced over at Minato, who was walking close beside them, one hand fisted in Kyo's shirt and keeping his eyes peeled on their surroundings. Like they were still on mission.
He must have rushed to the Inuzuka compound when he hadn't been able to find her in the area around the hospital. And somehow talked his way inside.
Or convinced someone to fetch Kisaki for him.
How he'd made them listen to him, she didn't have the first clue.
Far too soon, Kisaki was stalking up the road to the hospital doors, the light from inside the building spilling out onto the ground beneath her paws.
Kyo stared at the shadows it cast, and if her face hadn't hurt too much for it, she would have frowned.
When Minato opened the door to let Kisaki in first, she was too tired to pay the hands picking her up off the dog more than cursory notice.
People were talking, but the words just washed over her, slipping off like water off of oiled canvas, leaving nothing behind in their wake.
Someone did something with her foot again, so she guessed she had done some sort of damage to the cast by walking around on it, but... she couldn't find it in herself to care.
Kyo slipped in and out of uneasy slumber until a large, warm hand landed on her head, accompanied by a heavy sigh from a familiar chest.
"You're going to make me go grey, child," Katsurou-sensei's deep voice rumbled from next to her and Kyo had to bite her lip to keep from- doing something stupid.
"Sensei," she whimpered, voice high and thin and unsteady. "I was doing better," she added wetly, because it just wasn't fair.
"You were," sensei agreed firmly.
"I can't-" Kyo's throat closed up and she took a deep breath in an attempt to steady herself, shaking her head.
Katsurou was silent, and a small part of her was terrified he was going to leave. That he would realise that she was just too much trouble to keep around. All she did was give him more problems and grief.
There was only so much patience you could expect from one person.
Blinking her eyes open when the hand was removed from her head, Kyo just about had time to give the room a panicked sweep with her eyes, before sensei's arms slipped underneath her and picked her up from the hospital bed.
One of her arms automatically wrapped around sensei's broad, sturdy shoulders and she blinked in an attempt to clear her eyes, but that just made the tears spill over to drip down her cheeks. Which stung something fierce, because her face felt like one big bruise and her nose was still recently broken.
Katsurou settled back in his chair with a heavy sigh, settling her carefully in his lap.
Kyo went boneless against him, gingerly leaning her head against his shoulder. "I can't do this again, sensei," she said thinly.
Sensei's hand came up to cradle her skull, air whooshing through his lungs in a deep breath. "Naoki is alive, Kyo," he said quietly.
"Yeah," she agreed tremulously, mouth twisting bitterly.
"He lost a leg, not his life," Katsurou continued steadily, the timbre of his voice soothing and comforting and he was warm and alive.
"Sensei," she said, voice small, trying to stop crying. "This is a horrible year."
-x-x-x-
Katsurou slumped down in the uncomfortable chair and settled in for a long day.
He smoothed down Kyo's hair with one hand, while the other one made sure her left foot was placed safely and comfortably on the edge of the mattress right next to them, elevated and in no danger of falling off.
Humming neutrally under his breath, he glanced over at the door, where Jiraiya was standing by the wall and silently met his grim gaze.
The blond brat was passed out on his own bed, and the Akimichi boy had been tucked into yet another bed after he'd come out of surgery.
All of Team Seven had been gathered in one room, with the addition of Katsurou himself.
"Unless you plan to get something else done, I recommend grabbing a chair and taking a seat," he said idly, not letting up on the steady petting of his brat's soft hair, smoothing it back from her battered face again and again in a steady rhythm he hoped would lull her fully back to sleep.
The younger man by the door looked conflicted, gaze flicking between his battered kids; from Naoki, to Minato, to Kyo.
"I should've protected them," he muttered, sounding distracted and like he was talking more to himself.
"Maybe," Katsurou returned evenly. "I wasn't there and it's too soon to have seen any of the reports, but you're talking to a man who lost two out of three students." His hand stilled on Kyo's head, his hold on her tightening infinitesimally. "Your Genin are still alive, and Kyo will bounce back. Eventually," he added into the grim silence.
She always did.
But that didn't mean Katsurou wasn't aware that there was a limit. For all that her circumstances were different, she was still just a child, and she could only take so much before something broke under the strain.
At the rate this war was going, they were about to start toeing the line.
"I feel like such a failure," Jiraiya muttered, but did pick up a chair to bring further into the room. After a brief moment's indecision, he put it down between Naoki and Minato's beds, seeing as Kyo was already receiving most of Katsurou's attention.
"So learn from this and try to do better," Katsurou huffed, knowing very well that it was easier said than done.
The room was silent for a long few minutes.
"How did you..." Jiraiya asked quietly, question trailing off uncertainly but it was clear enough what it was he was asking.
Katsurou slanted a long look over at the man, who was staring intently at Naoki's pale, drawn face.
He felt his mouth flatten into a tight, tense line.
Katsurou turned back to gazing at Kyo's bruised but mostly peaceful face, slack with sleep and partially obscured with medical tape. "I take it you hunted down the mission report," he began, and it wasn't really a question. Katsurou had done the same, as soon as he got out of the hospital, no matter how much it had felt like he was punishing himself. He didn't wait for Jiraiya to answer before continuing. "One of the last things I told them was to stick close together," his lips stretched in a self-deprecating, humourless smile. It had made them an easier target for the trap. "It was just chance they happened upon the one team with Kyo on it. If not for her, they would've succeeded." He paused and the silence stretched.
"I never know how to treat her," Jiraiya admitted under his breath a while later.
"You'll figure it out," Katsurou returned easily.
And even if Jiraiya couldn't figure it out, he was sure Kyo was up to the task. Once she'd gotten a chance to recover and heal and find a way to get used to the new person she was turning into. So very different from the adult she'd once been.
He sighed.
Katsurou was sure Kyo would recover from this with a little time and care. And lots of hugs, he mentally added with a small measure of amusement.
Brat had managed to corrupt absolutely everyone around her, too.
Her father, on the other hand, wouldn't be anywhere near as amicable and easily settled as Kyo was.
"They're alive," he murmured quietly to himself, fingers finding the pulse on the side of Kyo's neck, as if of their own accord.
-x-x-x-
